Du Quoin Votes Last of 3 Percent Pay Hikes; Duncan Suggests City Manager Form of Government

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Before adjournment Monday night, the Du Quoin City Council approved a 2009 3 percent pay increase for the remainder of employees not covered by any other labor contract.

That list of 14 staff members crosses into most departments and includes people like the city clerk, ranking officers in the police department, city firemen and the health and safety officer.

City Clerk Blaine Bastien said the 3.013 percent hike for the 14 will cost the city about $18,450.

Employees under the laborers and police contracts received a similar increase for next year amounting to a flat 57 cents an hour. The value of the increase for all other employees is $56,826.

The total expense for increases in 2009 will be approximately $75,276.

In other action, the council approved an $83,568 engineering contract with J.T. Blankinship of Murphysboro for design work to extend roads along the west side of the Du Quoin Industrial Park. The city's share of that work will be $16,716.

The city hopes to draw from a $500,000 federal commitment three years ago to actually build the roads and infrastructure. The industrial park is located just off Rt. 51 in the city's northwest corner

Du Quoin has one or two groups interested in sites in the industrial park, now anchored by Heartland Baking, Inc.--a cookie baker--and MPP, Inc., an electroplating company. A fact-finding meeting will be held with one of the companies in January.

The city cannot disclose who the interested parties are, but at least one is best described as a remanufacturer.

Near the end of the meeting as Mayor John Rednour polled commissioners about any new matters, water commissioner Rex Duncan broached the topic of rethinking how the City of Du Quoin operates as a municipality. He told the council there is some forward-thinking merit to the idea of changing to a city manager form of government where a paid professional is hired to run most day-to-day functions of the city.

The mayor and council would have the ultimate decision-making role, but would serve in more of an advisory capacity. As government exists now, staff members like City Clerk Blaine Bastien and public works director Dale Spencer--even department heads--have the responsibility of making most of the decisions without having some of the authority.

One specific example Duncan presented to council members was merit pay for employees. "I don't think I can spend an hour or two with some of these employees and decide on a merit raise," he said.

Duncan said the manager could be current city clerk Blaine Bastien or someone else. That's not the issue, he told commissioners. The issue is about paying a professional to run all aspects of the city with the day-to-day authority.

This is not a new idea to Duncan. He talked about this while serving as city clerk. He said the system works well in places like Carbondale and Anna, which continue to see growth.

The council approved the roadblock application submitted by the VFW Post 513 for April 25th, 2009

The council approved Resolution 2008-R12-01: A resolution authorizing General maintenance motor fuel tax funds for 2009.

The council approved the council meeting schedule for the year 2009.

The council approved the contract between the City of Du Quoin and Ashauer Consulting in the amount of $25,000 for the coming year. Ashauer has a similar contract with the Perry County board of commissioners.