During its March 11 regular meeting, the Paintsville City Council approved the first reading of a proposed ordinance that would codify a 50 percent discount for all city employees at all city-owned recreation facilities, including the Paintsville Golf Course.
The meeting also included a municipal order to codify the system for the city government to barter for services.
The item was added to the agenda during the meeting, with Mayor Bill Mike Runyon stating that the state required the discount be passed by ordinance.
“We need to let Mr. (City Attorney Jeff) Baldwin read an ordinance so elected officials can receive a little bit of a discount at our recreational facilities,” Runyon said. “This came from the state; everything has to be in writing and everything has to be an ordinance anymore. We can’t just assume that something we did 20 years ago is good anymore, it has to be in writing.”
Baldwin stated that there are a set of ordinances, as pay scale modifications cannot be made to elected positions mid-term.
“I’ve prepared two ordinances, one relates to city employees. The golf board indicated that they wanted to give city employees 50 percent off of their golf fees and in order to do that, it has to be stated in the salary compensation that they get this benefit,” Baldwin said. “We did a similar one for city officials, but that can’t take effect, because city officials can’t vote to increase anything that they receive … For the next city council will be in 2025 and the next mayor in 2027.”
According to the proposed text of the ordinance, the discount would also cover any recreational activities at the recreation center and any fees to be paid at the Paintsville City Pool.
Councilman Bo Belcher put forth a motion to approve the measure for city employees, with Councilman Tim Hall seconding the motion, which passed unanimously.
Baldwin then read the second ordinance, intended for city officials including city council members and the mayoral position.
“That (will be offered) to elected officials in consideration of public services rendered,” Baldwin read.
Belcher put forth a motion to approve the second ordinance, which was seconded by Hall again and once more passed unanimously. Both ordinances will require a second reading to be passed into law.
Baldwin then introduced the municipal order for bartering, although details were not initially mentioned as to what transactions were being discussed.
“This is to affect any bartering transaction in an instance the city wants to barter for services, it has to be in writing. There has to be a memorandum of understanding. For the individual to receive some benefit from the city, they set forth exactly what service they’re providing, with an itemized cost of exactly what the monetary value of that would be and it sets forth exactly what compensation they would receive for that,” Baldwin said.
“That will be under the guidance of the golf board,” Hall said.
“Is that the one where you get $8,000 work done for $1,100 and save $7,000,” Belcher asked.
“Yeah, and then people turn you in,” Runyon said, laughing. “That’s the one.”
Councilwoman Ashley McKenzie put forth the first motion to approve the order, with a second by Councilman David Vanhoose, with the item passing unanimously.
The measure to move Paintsville City Council meetings to 4 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at the 404 Pavilion on Main Street passed a split vote at the meeting with McKenzie voting no and Belcher, Vanhoose and Hall voting yes. Councilman Mike Conley was not present at the meeting. All meetings are open to the public.
