Council balks at 10-hour work days

Tony Brown, Troy’s new mayor, wasted no time in his first regular city council meeting Wednesday evening, diving right into his mayor’s report about what changes he was prepared to make. 

With months of missed agenda to attend to, there was indeed a lot for Brown to speak his mind on.

Although the appointment of a new City Attorney is pending, Brown had spoken to a judge concerning the new hire. But most of Brown’s report, and much of the discussion on agenda items that followed, came as a result of Brown’s problem with the lack of work city crews are doing.

   A proposal to increase these crews’ hours to 10-hour workdays was met with stiff resistance by the new mayor.

   “I don’t see enough work to justify what these guys are already doing,” Brown said. “I think we have too many people working for the city. The city is hemorrhaging money.”

   Some in attendance wanted to make clear that the crews themselves weren’t the problem, but the supervision and lack of tasks to complete. 

   Other items on the agenda were three new businesses: An ice cream cart, a pizza place and a karaoke business were all approved as long as the business owners can get their paperwork in order.

   The lack of city attorney once again reared its head when the Troy Codified Code Book hit a legal snag, as no Council member was quite sure whether they were allowed to approve the book without prior public notice. It was tabled until July 18, the next regular Council meeting.

   The Northern Lights contract with the city of Troy was also under review, and Council President Phil Fisher was unhappy with the liberties the power company had been taking with Troy employees.

   “Their contract is with the City of Troy, not the City of Troy Power,” Fisher said.

   The Council ultimately decided a presentation from Northern Lights would be needed before the renegotiation of the contract.

   The last major agenda item was a pet project of Brown. Brown said he was sick of Troy wasting so much water from leaks in the mains, so his first step was to propose a citywide survey to locate the worst leaks.

   The next regular Council meeting is July 18, and the Council hopes to have found a new attorney by then.