The Odessa City Council will consider providing city employees a one-time payment of $1,500 during its regular meeting Tuesday night.
In a memo to the council, Interim City Manager Agapito Bernal said the payment would help “with inflation and the cost of goods and service that has impacted employees.”
Bernal’s memo suggests the council could either provide the one-time payment to all employees or it could provide the payment to everyone except council-appointed employees, public safety and emergency communications employees. Public safety employees and dispatchers just received raises in December.
“Every department within the city is experiencing challenges with employee recruitment and retention. It is difficult for city departments to be competitive with the current local market for good quality employees,” Bernal wrote.
It would cost the city roughly $1.6 million if the council awarded the payment to everyone or $905,597 if the council excluded appointees and public safety employees. Right now, the city has received nearly $9 million more in sales tax revenue than what was budgeted, Bernal said.
The council will also consider hiring Performance Services Inc. to install water meters and related “advanced metering infrastructure improvements” at various locations throughout the city at a cost of roughly $43 million. The company would also install pressure monitoring and leak detection devices, LED lighting throughout city facilities and increase the capacity of the Yukon pump station.
According to documents provided to the city, the project could save the city $3 million a year in utility costs.
In other matters, the city council will consider hiring Copper Key Realty to help city staff sell properties with a commission of 5% for each transaction, 2.5% for the seller’s representative and 2.5% for the buyer’s rep. According to materials provided to the council, bid specifications were sent to eight local vendors and Copper Key owner John Herriage was the only one to respond.
The council will also discuss ending its agreement with the Ector County Independent School District to enforce school attendance policies.
During the council’s work session, which begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday, new Parks and Recreation Director Max Reyes is expected to seek the council’s opinion on a building placed at Sherwood Park by the Odessa Soccer Association.
According to Reyes, former director Steve Patton verbally agreed to allow the association to put up the building at the park and it violates “many rules.” He did not specify what rules when asking for the item to be placed on the agenda.
Reyes also wants to terminate a contract with a janitorial company that currently provides services at the department’s community building and have city staff perform that function.
When placing the item on the agenda, Reyes said he found “several instances and mishaps in the services performed or not performed in the previous years.”
