Public welcome at special open meeting yet to be set
By Patricia Bogumil
Editor
An Aug. 1 deadline will be met to avoid an automatic renewal of employee contract benefits, commissioners with the Town of Waterford Sanitary District (WSD) decided at their July 11 monthly meeting.
As a result, a registered letter will be sent by Aug. 1 so the employment contract for WSD Administrator Debbie Nelson will not automatically renew for another year.
Nelson will be called upon to “probably help draft the letter to herself,” commented John Macy, the WSD attorney.
Nelson’s four-year contract with WSD expires in December 2012. The board’s action does not mean she is being fired or that she won’t have a contract for 2013, Macy noted.
Debbie Nelson is the only WSD employee with an official employment contract.
Her husband, Norm Nelson, the WSD operations superintendent, works via an “At-Will Employment Terms and Requirements” document not considered to be an official WSD employment contract.
The District’s other full-time employee, Operations Assistant Jerry Ignatowski, was hired with a stated understanding that he is eligible to receive all benefits afforded full-time WSD employees, according to official minutes from the WSD May 11, 2011 meeting.
The Board’s action taken July 11 reflects an upcoming review of the level of retirement and other benefits afforded WSD employees – benefits that have been criticized as excessive and which are a component in an Aug. 14 recall election of WSD Board President Bill Gerard.
A special meeting open to the public is planned in advance of the Board’s regularly scheduled Aug. 8 meeting.
The meeting will offer a general discussion of WSD employee benefits. It had not yet been scheduled as of press time.
Macy suggested that commissioners might also want to move out of the open meeting and into closed session later that evening to discuss specific details of individual employee benefits.
Wage comparisons.
The Board discussed, but took no action, on a suggestion by Dan Dickinson – Gerard’s opponent in the Aug. 14 recall – that WSD staff be directed to research how WSD wages and benefits compare to comparable private and public jobs in the area.
Some of that research has already been done, noted Macy.
A July 10 memo prepared for commissioners by Debbie Nelson shows a range of salaries/benefits for area administrator positions, with annual salaries ranging from a low of $41,475 for the Town of Burlington to Nelson’s $53,617 to highs of nearly $100,000 for South Milwaukee and Greendale.
In that memo, Nelson notes that her current contractual wages and benefits were set by former WSD commissioners Tom Pisarski, Myron Ciesielski and Ken Hinz, and not by members of the current WSD board.
Grinder pumps forever – not
In other action July 11, the board gave Gerard and Norm Nelson the go-ahead to check into options for some of nearly 200 district-owned grinder pumps that serve two or three households.
Such sharing is a “big issue with complaints,” said Gerard, especially when people selling a house find that their shared pump negatively impacts the selling price.
He suggested some low-lying sections of town served by grinder pumps, such as areas of Halverson Road and Riverside Drive, might actually be best served by laying laterals for a traditional gravity system, which might save costs in the long-term.
But all options need to be checked out, Gerard stressed.
“The main thing now is this is preliminary checking into the bettering of the system, and saving money,” he explained.
Commissioner Jeff Santaga said Gerard’s idea to research grinder pump usage is something “wise to look into.”
“It might save people and the District money,” Santaga said.
Aug. 14 recall election
In other WSD business, Dickinson is the only candidate to file paperwork with the required signatures to vie against Gerard in next month’s special WSD recall election, according to Town Clerk Tina Mayer.
Tuesday, Gerard called for a debate with Dickinson about the issues.
“I would like a one-on-one public debate on your ‘9-point plan of attack,’ ” Gerard told Dickinson via email.
As of press time, such a debate had not been scheduled.
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