Clarification requested for Hickman’s SRO contract with County Schools

Hickman City Commission met June 28 in regular session with Commissioners Alicia Esters, John Wiley Gannon, Robert Griggs, Rob Hitesman, and Mayor Heath Carlton present, with four items of unfinished business included on the meeting's agenda.

Resolution 20-154, regarding SRO (School Resource Officer) MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) Agreement between the City of Hickman and Fulton County Board of Education was read for Fiscal Year 2021-2022.

Following the reading of the Resolution discussion was held.

City Manager David Gallagher asked City Attorney about the memo received from Fulton County School Board Attorney Allison Whitledge, specifically about the 80 hours for the SRO to work for the city of Hickman, regarding overtime pay.

"Did you have a discussion about that?” Gallagher asked.
Wilkerson responded, “We did not. The one thing she discussed with me was the change in the addition of the uniforms.”

“Patrice (Chambers) sent that to her (Whitledge) saying they did not think they had to pay the overtime. The problem was, if he worked 40 hours for the school and worked for the City on weekends, that would be overtime. We then billed them for the overtime. We don’t want to change that and we can’t. That would limit us to about two weeks in the summer, maybe not consecutively, but in a narrow time frame for us to use him. We may need him during the week,” Gallagher said.
“The only discussion I had was a material change for uniforms, a specific number and type of uniform and the School Board was going to pass the MOU last Thursday during their monthly meeting. We did not discuss the 80 hours,” Wilkerson said.

Mayor Carlton asked, if as it does not exceed the $73,000, agreed to in the contract, does it matter if it is overtime or not?

Gallagher told the commission the rate of pay was not specified in the contract, and the SRO should be “as needed” not “emergency” with pay not to exceed $73,000, according to Article 4 of the contract.

Commissioners voted to approve the Mayor to sign the contract following discussions with the Fulton County School Board Chairman.

Commissioners also approved Ordinance 20-118 Budget, Ordinance 20-119 Water Rates Outside the City of Hickman; and Ordinance 20-120 Industrial Gas Rates.

Following the 90 day probation period, the Commissioners voted to hire full-time personnel, to include

Laura Dodd for City Hall staff, and Charles Huffstutter and Craig Bradley, for public works following the recommendation of John Amberg, Public Works Supervisor.

“We have a real good crew right now,” Amberg said.

The City Manager’s Report included an update on the Booster Pump at Brownsville.

“Bob Pickerill came and looked over the pump and said it could be replaced for $100,000. A couple of days later I received an email saying it would be $165,000, then another email was received saying $233,000. I sent an email back and said for them to quit looking at it because it goes up every time he looks at it. I asked them to explore other avenues to lower the cost. We know we will have to do something,” Gallagher said.

“I sent some information to Zito Media to set up a meeting to discuss the service to residents, the system being down, and equipment out dated. If Commissioners have specifics for me to discuss, let me know so I can,” Gallagher continued.

An update on the Distillery was also provided.

“The water meter is being placed now. There was a four-inch line at the distillery and distillery representatives were present to show about where they would like the meter placed,” Gallagher said.

Commissioner Hitesman asked, “How is the Wastewater project going?”

Gallagher reported “They keep breaking lines and fixing them, waiting on backordered items and are six-weeks behind, working on valves that are leaking. We keep going into the contingency fund.”

Hitesman also asked about the drain pipe and if it was resolved.

“They finally have it hooked up. The water was right at the drain pipe,” Gallagher said.

Commissioner Gannon updated the officials about the Pecan Festival, tentatively scheduled to be held Oct. 20-23.

"We moved it to get away from other area festivals and to have it closer to pecan harvest season,” he said.

“When you get the dates set for the Tourism commission to meet, you need to contact City Hall so they can contact the media to publicize it for Open Meeting laws," Mayor Carlton said.

“Floyd Keith Park had everything needed for "Juneteenth" including water, lights, and electricity,” Gallagher said.

Commissioner Griggs announced a new business had opened, with the possibility of another restaruant opening soon, as well as the Distillery.

“We will have a new nutritional drink shop on the bypass soon also,” Mayor Carlton said.

Commissioners went into Executive Session pursuant to KRS 61.810(1)(g) at 5:35 p.m., returning to Open Session at 5:40 p.m., with no decisions and no votes taken during Executive Session.

Commissioners conducted the reading of Resolution 20-155 Alliance Agreement and adopted the agreement.