Metro Roundup: Homewood city budget includes 5% COLA for employees
The Homewood City Council on Monday night approved a $63 million budget for fiscal 2023, which includes funding for a 5% cost-of-living adjustment for all city employees.
The cost of the cost-of-living adjustment is roughly $1.2 million, and the council also passed about $300,000 in merit increases and is absorbing a 6.4% increase in the cost of insurance for city employees. Also, If the city ends fiscal 2022 with a surplus, all employees will receive a one-time $2,000 bonus, costing the city $365,000.
The budget also includes money for the city to bid out a contract for ambulance services, as opposed to using Regional Paramedic Services or having the city handle transportation of patients. While the contract will have to be bid out, Mayor Patrick McClusky has had conversations with Lifeguard Ambulance Service, which said it can provide two transport units dedicated to the city and handle the cost of employees and insurance, saving the city the risk of being liable for any incidents. The city would pay the company through an annual contract.
The Homewood City Council also on Monday passed two amendments to the city’s tree ordinance, removing mandates for tree planting for residents doing exterior renovations valued at less than $5,000 and for interior renovations that are less than 50% of the property’s space.
The council referred another recommended change to the tree ordinance back to its Planning and Development Committee for further discussion. One recommendation was to allow homeowners to pay $750 and plant just 25% of the trees they are required to plant. Councilman Andy Gwaltney said that idea did not protect the city's tree canopy and suggested the cost be raised to $1,500 and the percentage of trees to be planted be raised to 50% of the required amount. The Planning and Development Committee is supposed to take up the matter again next week.
The Homewood council also:
- Rejected a $558,000 bid to build sidewalks on Delcris Drive and voted to split the project into phases, budgeting the first phase at $275,000
- Agreed to pay $262,000 to CB&A Construction to build sidewalks on Mecca Avenue
- Rejected a $1 million bid to replace a stormwater culvert on Huntington Road because it was well over budget
- Rejected an initial bid for stormwater improvements on College Avenue and accepted a revised bid from Southeastern SealCoating for $754,000
- Rejected an annexation request from a property owner at 314 Happy Lane due to concerns about maintenance and the ability for fire and garbage trucks to make it down the road. Councilmen Nick Sims and Carlos Aleman cast the lone votes in favor of the annexation.
- Approved an amendment to the city’s post-construction stormwater management ordinance, which mandates that a professional engineer registered in the state of Alabama provide a letter ensuring that both stormwater and non-stormwater discharges will not have an “adverse effect or impact on adjacent properties, receiving waters or stormwater drainage systems.” That letter will be required for all commercial, manufacturing, institutional and multi-family developments, or for single family dwellings that increase impervious areas on the property, that require a building, demolition or land disturbance permit.