Finance committee recommends approval of COLA

The Homewood City Council’s finance committee approved on Thursday afternoon a request from Homewood Mayor Patrick McClusky to pay $1.2 million for a 5% cost-of-living adjustment for all city employees.

The request from McClusky comes after the city’s firefighters union made public requests for better pay. The city had been “fairly stagnant,” union president Mark Robison previously said. Other cities, including neighboring Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook, had given 17% and 23% in total cost-of-living adjustments since 2007, compared to Homewood’s 12%.

The vote was unanimous and the entire council is set to vote on the fiscal 2023 budget at Monday’s council meeting.

Finance Chair Walter Jones said the city has done much over the years to try and stay competitive with other cities, including absorbing the cost of health insurance increases and year-end bonuses. 

The city is one of many awaiting guidance from the Jefferson County Personnel Board on whether they will raise pay grades for cities within their system. While the board’s decision is not yet known, Council President Alex Wyatt said any changes would not take effect until October 2023.

Councilor Barry Smith said the possible changes not taking place until next year gives the city a cushion. McClusky said the city now has a year to determine how to deal with the possible impact of the board increasing employee pay on top of the cost-of-living adjustment.

Smith said she didn’t appreciate comments made on social media accusing council members of not caring about the safety of Homewood residents.

“To make some sort of proclamation that the people who are up here every week trying to do everything we can for the people of this city and the people who work in this city, to say we don’t care is not just incredibly offensive, it is untrue,” Smith said. “It’s bordering on slanderous and embarrassing that someone would make that type of statement.”

The committee also approved paying about $305,000 in merit increases and absorbing a 6.4% increase in the cost of health insurance.

McClusky told department heads that until the city knows what the personnel board will do, he needs to sign off on any employee hires.

Following discussion earlier in budget hearings, the committee recommended removing seven proposed hires within the Fire Department that would have been used to staff ambulances, instead choosing to put out a bid for ambulance services. McClusky, along with Smith and Wyatt, talked about the large risk the city would be taking if they handled their own ambulance service and patient transport, both in liability insurance and worker’s compensation.

McClusky said he met with Lifeguard Ambulance Services, which said they could offer a contractual service that would give the city dedicated ambulances that would only respond to calls within the city. The company carries their own insurance and hires their own employees. The city would pay an annual amount and the Fire Department would instruct the company which shift a 12-hour ambulance would cover. There would also be a 24-hour ambulance, McClusky said.

The contract for ambulance service will have to go out for bid, but because it is a city service, the city is not obligated to accept the lowest bid.

Fire Chief Nick Hill said three of the seven proposed hires were requested due to the need for shift coverage created by the city approving the department’s shift to a Kelly cycle, which was requested by the department. Moving to that cycle gives firefighters four more days off per year. Hill said while the department will be okay for the time being, they will inevitably need a few more hires to pick up some coverage.

Tuesday recap

In a prior budget hearing on Tuesday, the committee voted to move all expenses related to Sims Garden to the general fund at a cost of $112,120. That includes $20,000 in donation and a previous commitment of $92,120 to help with the garden’s capital improvement plan. After this fiscal year, the garden, which is now a nonprofit, will only receive funds in the same way the city gives money to other local nonprofits, like The Birmingham Zoo and others.

The city will also have to roll over $1.4 million in expenditures for the 18th Street project over to fiscal 2023, as the project will not be complete by the end of this fiscal year. The city will only be responsible for 20%, or $280,000, of the project, but must pay the $1.4 million up front. 

The committee also finalized budgeting $275,000 for Delcris Drive sidewalks, which will have to be done in phases as the bid for that project came in higher than the budgeted amount, roughly $558,000. That project will be re-bid as the scope will change to only include sidewalks on half of the street to begin with. There were no bids received for Mecca Avenue sidewalks, but the committee recommended budgeting $262,000 for that project.

The committee also discussed the need to solve the homelessness problem in the city, which is growing, but said it would not happen through a contractual agreement. While the downtown Firehouse Shelter will take homeless people in, it is on a first come, first serve basis, meaning the city would not have a guaranteed place for the residents they pick up to take somewhere.