|Photo by Emma Delk| Moundsville City Manager Rick Healy during Tuesday night's Moundsville City Council subcommitteees meetings.

The Moundsville City Council Finance Subcommittee sent a recommendation to increase city employee salaries to the Employee Recruitment & Retention committee for consideration during Tuesday’s meeting.

The salary increase would possibly be paid for using funds from the 1% Municipal Sales and Use Tax or by other means.

The Employee Recruitment & Retention committee consists of council members Judy Hunt and Randy Chamberlain, City Manager Rick Healy, City Administrative Secretary Sara Jasenec and all city department heads. Healy said the committee would discuss the pay increase among themselves first and then “come back to council with a recommendation.”

The Moundsville Policy Subcommittee also approved bringing a salary increase for the members of the Firefighter’s Civil Service Commission and the Police Civil Service Commission as well as the secretaries of all paid city boards and commissions to the city council for discussion during their meeting on Tuesday.

The $25 increase would raise the salaries of the two commissions and secretaries of paid city boards and commissions from $75 to $125, matching the increase Moundsville Sanitary/Stormwater Utility Board members and Water Board members have already received.

“This kind of just keeps everything in line since we’ve increased all of the board members [salaries] that we could increase by law, from $75 to $125, yet all the secretaries still hung there at $75,” Healy said. “This fills that gap and allows the board and commission secretaries to get the same increase to $125. They put in the same time during the meetings that we do, plus some additional time outside of the meeting going over minutes so that it would keep it all even across the board.”

When Policy Subcommittee chair Brianna Hickman asked if there was any opposition to the pay increases, committee member Ginger DeWitt said she was “OK” with secretaries receiving the increase but “did not know” if she was okay with all commission members receiving the increase.

Discussion then broke out among council members regarding which boards and commissions would receive the pay increase. Healy clarified that the pay of the Firefighters’ and Police’s Civil Service Commissions employees and secretaries for all paid city boards and commissions would increase to match the pay of Moundsville Sanitary/Stormwater Utility Board members and Water Board members.

“The city pays all the boards that can be paid per state code,” Healy said. “We’re adding two more boards to the pay increase and not proposing to change any other because the other two paid boards are already being paid up to the $125.”

Council member Judy Hunt questioned whether board secretaries typed meeting minutes “on city time” or whether they had to “take additional time on their own” to do so. Healy responded that he believed it “depends on the secretary.”

“We have one secretary who is not an employee, so she does it on her own time,” Healy said. “Some board secretaries are employees and work on city time, so board members plus secretaries will receive the pay increase.”

Among other items discussed by the policy subcommittee, Danielle Harmon, Moundsville Building Inspectors Administrative Tech, was announced as the Development Director for the city’s Land Reuse Agency. Healy said Harmon will split her time between her current city job and the part-time Development Director role, in which she will help develop the city’s land reuse program.

Healy said Harmon was selected for the position because she is already a city employee, meaning it was “easy” to move her into the Development Director role.

“We thought it made sense to move her into that position because she’s already a full-time employee, so it’s easier for her to split her time,” Healy said. “As we move forward with the Land Reuse Agency, the job will require more duties. At that point, she’ll become a full-time land bank employee, and we’ll hire another person for the Building Inspectors Office.”

Healy said Harmon would report back to him and council members regularly to update them on the progress of developing the Land Reuse Agency. Harmon will also take “some different classes” and shadow other land reuse agencies in the state.

“She’ll be working 50% at her current job and 50% in the land reuse agency development phase,” Healy said. “It won’t be nearly 50% some weeks [Harmon’s time spent at the Land Reuse Agency], but that will be the maximum she would spend there.”