Supervisors discuss Makee Manor, propose remedy to Roads employee grievance

by Bob Beach

During the regular meeting of the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors Monday, September 23, Board Chairman Larry Schellhammer said that he has reached the conclusion that the County's best option with regard to the Makee Manor facility is to salvage the contents of the building and then tear it down.
He said he had come to that conclusion after calculating the value of the land, the well and the salvage value of the contents of the building, subtracting the cost of demolition of the building and arriving at a rough estimate of $60,000 if the County were to sell the property, a figure he said he does not think will likely be offered if the property were put up for auction. Schellhammer also said that the Board would look foolish if it sold the property and later discovered a need for it.
Head Custodian Mike Gallagher said that he thinks that the money raised by selling the contents of the building may be sufficient to cover the cost of the demolition of the building, and added that the County would also save at least $40,000 in heating costs this winter alone. Supervisors Dennis Koenig and Sherry Strub agreed in principle with Schellhammer's conclusions, saying that while people don't want to see the building torn down, they are also coming to understand the cost of maintaining the building and don't want the County to keep spending that money. The Board then voted to schedule open houses for Saturday, October 12 from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at both Makee Manor and the County jail at the courthouse in order to give area residents a better understanding of the decisions the Board faces with regard to both facilities.
The Board also revisited a formal grievance filed by a Secondary Roads employee who contends that he was not called in to work overtime when he should have been, based on his seniority and other factors that should have been considered with regard to such situations. Union representative Mark Jones asked the Board to reconsider the union's offer of five-and-one-third hours of overtime or eight hours of compensation time to settle the grievance, saying that the cost to the County would be approximately $150, whereas binding arbitration on the matter would cost the County at least $1,500. He added that if the matter were to go into arbitration, the union would request the full eight hours of overtime pay.
Chairman Schellhammer said that the contract with the union does not clearly specify the remedy for such situations, other than a guarantee of two hours of overtime pay, which is why the Board had offered to pay two hours of overtime and give the employee the option to work for an additional six hours of overtime pay. He said that the language in the contract needs to be clarified and that perhaps the cost of arbitration would be worth it if it results in a clarification of how such situations should be handled. Supervisor Strub noted that the employee had declined an offer to work additional overtime to make up for the missed time and said that she objects to paying someone for not working. Supervisor Koenig agreed that arbitration may clear up the contract language.
Schellhammer went on to say that he would not agree with the portion of the union's offer to force the supervisor who made the error to work extra hours in order to pay the employee that he failed to call in. He said that he would not penalize a County employee for making a mistake and that he would personally work for the employee in question if it would resolve the dispute. Supervisors Strub and Koenig said that they would be willing to do the same. County Engineer Brian Ridenour, however, pointed out that under the terms of the union contract, non-union employees could not be paid an hourly rate for work covered under the contract, so the Board could potentially create cause for another grievance.
After some discussion, the Board made a formal offer to the union to pay the employee two hours of overtime and to pay him for an additional six hours of work, which the Board would perform themselves, provided that the union would agree not to file an additional grievance based on the contract section regarding work performed by non-union employees.
The Board also met with Waukon City Attorney Jim Garrett, who presented the Board with a 28E agreement regarding the collection of unpaid parking fines. Garrett said that under the terms of the agreement, which had been approved by County Treasurer Lori Hesse, Allamakee County Attorney Jill Kistler and the Waukon City Council, the Allamakee County Treasurer's Office would refuse to register vehicles until the owners pay their parking fines and would collect the parking fines for an additional cost of five dollars to vehicle owners. The Board approved the agreement.
In other business, the Board agreed to hire John Roe as a full-time custodian at $13.00 per hour with a raise to $13.50 per hour after a 90-day probationary period.