The 26 employees of Peachtree City’s sewer system will not see any cost of living or merit increases this year.
That’s because the city Water and Sewer Authority voted unanimously to ditch the increases for the 2011-2012 budget year. That move will save $56,623.
The vote came at the end of a protracted discussion about one authority member’s calculations of the year-to-year increase in employee benefits.
Authority member Luis Valencia at first suggested that the employee benefits were going up $145,000 in the 2011-2012 budget. But after going back and sorting through the data, it was determined that the increased benefits cost is actually $64,000.
WASA member Vanessa Birrell said she was impressed that the authority was able to hold its increase in healthcare costs to 4 percent. She noted that Fayette County government had a 28 percent increase in healthcare costs this year.
As far as the cost of living raises were concerned, Birrell said she thought, “they don’t belong anymore.” Instead, the authority should use merit increases of no more than 2 percent, she suggested.
The vote to ditch the cost of living and merit salary increases this year was unanimous with WASA members Mike Harmon and Tim Meredith joining Birrell and Valencia. WASA member Phil Mahler was not present due to a death in his family.
During the discussion on employee raises, Valencia also briefly explored employee salaries, showing in a spreadsheet that all authority employees received at least a 5 percent pay increase in the 2009-2010 and the 2010-2011 budget years. In the 2010-2011 budget year, several employees in the operations department received raises of 9, 11, 12 and 21 percent, Valencia noted.
In other business, WASA approved a change order for video inspections of sewer pipes, with the new figure rising to $82,981. That allowed for a larger length of pipe to be inspected, according to WASA General Manager Steven Hogan. The authority had budgeted $100,000 for the item.
The authority also approved the final change order on the Kings Ridge sewer rehabilitation project for the Wynnmeade subdivision. Now complete, the project came in at $114,334, nearly $100,000 under budget.
In the financial presentation, year-end figures were presented showing that WASA ended the year $51,000 short in revenue, while it also spent $143,000 less than planned. The sewer system has some 10,512 customers.
Hogan also informed the authority that during the heavy rainstorm Sept. 22, the authority’s flow rate increased dramatically, which illustrates the problem WASA has with infiltration and inflow.
The authority also briefly discussed the possibility of developing a new logo for WASA in light of its 15th anniversary of operating the sewer system. Changing the decals on WASA vehicles would cost about $5,000, Hogan said, adding that the current WASA sign off Ga. Highway 74 South will have to be replaced due to the widening of the highway.
WASA also postponed a discussion on refinancing a 2002 series of bonds until a later date.
