SCOTT CITY TO CONSIDER SALES-TAX HIKE

SCOTT CITY -- The Scott City Council will again consider putting a one-half-cent sales-tax increase proposal before Scott City voters.

Funds generated from the tax would be used for capital improvements, specifically for street repairs and improvements, said Mayor Shirley Young.

The council discussed the tax increase at its Monday night meeting, and will vote Feb. 4 on an ordinance that would put the proposal before voters, said Young.

The current sales-tax rate is 5.725 percent, 1 cent of which is mandated by the city. The increase would put the tax rate at 6.225.

An ordinance that would have put a similar tax-increase proposal before voters was approved by the council in early June, but was vetoed 2 weeks later by Young, who said she considered it too restrictive.

According to that ordinance, the funds would have been used strictly for the construction of an alternate access road from the city to Interstate 55.

If approved at the council's next meeting, the latest proposal to increase the tax rate would be put before voters in April.

Young said current city income is "not keeping up with expenses."

Harold Uelsmann, the city's public works director, said, "If some money is not earmarked for street repair, we're going to be hurting."

Council members stressed the need for a time limit to be put on the tax, and agreed to do so at the next meeting.

If approved, the tax increase would generate about $100,000 per year in revenue.

In other business, two patrolmen and one dispatcher were appointed to the city's police department, bringing the number of department employees to six patrolmen, one chief and four dispatchers.

The council also accepted the resignation of Joy Venable, a dispatcher who resigned Wednesday. Venable was suspended by the city in December.

Rick Sherin, a reserve dispatcher and animal-control officer for the city, was hired as a full-time dispatcher.

The patrolmen are Eric Todd Schafer, currently an employee of the Bunker Police Department, and Jon Reesor of Cape Girardeau, whose last job in law enforcement was in Los Angeles, Calif.

A vote by council members for Reesor's appointment ended in a 3-3 tie. Young broke the tie and approved Reesor's appointment.

She said she approved it because all three employees had been recommended by the Police Personnel Board and Police Chief David Beck.

The council also approved granting 100 hours of compensation pay to Beck and 90 hours of compensation time to Officer Robert Elledge for time they had accumulated nearly four years ago. At the time, Beck was a lieutenant in the department.

Young said the compensation time had been taken away from the two and another officer at the time by then-Mayor Alvie Modglin.

The other officer, Jim Odom, was paid by the city after he obtained an attorney's opinion on whether or not he should be paid for the time, Young said. Odom is no longer employed by the department.

Young, referring to a statement written by Beck, said the reason why the two hadn't requested the funds before now is because Modglin had threatened to fire them at the time if they insisted they be paid.

The council voted 4-2 that the city pay Beck and Elledge for the time at the rate of pay they were making nearly four years ago.

Councilmen Ron Oller and Jim Cauble voted against paying the two.

"If this was going to be brought up, it should have been brought up when it was taken away, not 4 years later," Cauble said.

Young said she believed the city had an obligation to pay the two. "We still have a liability to pay them," she said.

City Attorney Francis Siebert said the state allows employees to request compensatory time up to five years after it is accumulated.

Modglin did not attend the meeting.