Amador County – Plymouth in the last month has braced for a budget crunch with adjustments to personnel, according to staff comments last month during an Amador Water Agency meeting. City Manager Dixon Flynn took a pay cut to help avoid layoffs, but the city still had to lay off Community Development Director Barry Siebe, whose last meeting was last week. City Finance Director Jeff Gardner in late July said: “I took a salary hit, and the city manager took a 50 percent hit so we wouldn’t have to lay off employees.” Gardner said he is working half time at Plymouth.
He attended the Amador Water Agency (AWA) board meeting last month to hear how its board was preparing to handle its own budget shortfalls. Gardner urged the AWA to consider personnel pay and benefits cuts at all levels, from the general manager’s position on down. Gardner attended the meeting with Councilman Jon Colburn, to keep tabs on a proposed rate increase for the Amador Water System (AWS), which will affect Plymouth. The AWS rate was raised 4 percent by the AWA board. Gardner said he has requested employee pay and benefits information from the AWA, but has been denied. Gardner said he planned to make a “Freedom of Information Act” request for staff salary information. The former finance director for Sutter Creek also criticized his former employer’s sale of half the capacity of its water treatment plant upgrade in Sutter Creek, which the city sold to AWA for $750,000. Gardner said “it was a really stupid business decision.” AWA Vice President Debbie Dunn gave a mid-July update to the Sutter Creek City Council, saying the city was approaching its limits at the treatment plant. Dunn said “we’ve never seen that.” Sutter Creek Councilman Pat Crosby said: “Something’s fishy, because you gave an awful lot of water to Plymouth 2 years ago.” Dunn said they have to find ways to expand treatment plants of both Sutter Creek and AWA. The agency 2 years ago allotted 1.4 million acre-feet of potable water to Plymouth through the new pipeline built by the city and AWA. Dunn said the Amador Water System was also nearing capacity for raw water used in the Central Amador Water System service area. She said CAWP customers recently “stood up and said they will not give us any more money,” by rejecting a rate increase with a Proposition 218 protest. The protest was led by Sutter Creek resident David Evitt. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 06:23
Plymouth Cuts Personnel from Top Down, Urges AWA to Do Same
Written by Tom-
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Amador County – Plymouth in the last month has braced for a budget crunch with adjustments to personnel, according to staff comments last month during an Amador Water Agency meeting. City Manager Dixon Flynn took a pay cut to help avoid layoffs, but the city still had to lay off Community Development Director Barry Siebe, whose last meeting was last week. City Finance Director Jeff Gardner in late July said: “I took a salary hit, and the city manager took a 50 percent hit so we wouldn’t have to lay off employees.” Gardner said he is working half time at Plymouth.
He attended the Amador Water Agency (AWA) board meeting last month to hear how its board was preparing to handle its own budget shortfalls. Gardner urged the AWA to consider personnel pay and benefits cuts at all levels, from the general manager’s position on down. Gardner attended the meeting with Councilman Jon Colburn, to keep tabs on a proposed rate increase for the Amador Water System (AWS), which will affect Plymouth. The AWS rate was raised 4 percent by the AWA board. Gardner said he has requested employee pay and benefits information from the AWA, but has been denied. Gardner said he planned to make a “Freedom of Information Act” request for staff salary information. The former finance director for Sutter Creek also criticized his former employer’s sale of half the capacity of its water treatment plant upgrade in Sutter Creek, which the city sold to AWA for $750,000. Gardner said “it was a really stupid business decision.” AWA Vice President Debbie Dunn gave a mid-July update to the Sutter Creek City Council, saying the city was approaching its limits at the treatment plant. Dunn said “we’ve never seen that.” Sutter Creek Councilman Pat Crosby said: “Something’s fishy, because you gave an awful lot of water to Plymouth 2 years ago.” Dunn said they have to find ways to expand treatment plants of both Sutter Creek and AWA. The agency 2 years ago allotted 1.4 million acre-feet of potable water to Plymouth through the new pipeline built by the city and AWA. Dunn said the Amador Water System was also nearing capacity for raw water used in the Central Amador Water System service area. She said CAWP customers recently “stood up and said they will not give us any more money,” by rejecting a rate increase with a Proposition 218 protest. The protest was led by Sutter Creek resident David Evitt. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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