FAIRMONT– On Monday the Fairmont City Council was faced with a number of considerations including whether to waive the requirement for the city attorney to attend every council meeting.

Interim City Administrator, Jeff O’Neill, said he brought the question up because in the other cities he’s worked at, the attorneys were only present if there was expected to be something important discussed with legal implications.

While O’Neill is only serving in the interim, he said putting this in place would give the new city administrator the authority, at their discretion, to request attendance rather than have it be automatic.

“The savings is $175 per hour and all calculated it’s probably a $6,000 estimate, which is not a huge amount but over time it can add up,” O’Neill said.

He added that if an item came up during the meeting that required input from the city attorney the matter could be tabled.

Council Member Britney Kawecki made a motion to approve waiving the regular attendance of the city attorney at council meetings and also made a motion to go out for a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new firm to represent the city. The city has been using Flaherty & Hood for legal services since January 2023.

“I believe that there’s additional cost savings by looking at an alternate city attorney. My reasoning is, at $175 per hour, I feel that for the number of issues we’ve been dealing with… no matter what it is, we’re using other firms,” Kawecki said.

She said she didn’t believe such a large firm was required for regular meetings and normal matters.

The first motion to waive regular attendance received a second and then opened for discussion.

Council Member Jay Maynard said that when something comes up, having an attorney at the ready has been convenient. While he’s sensitive to the cost, Maynard felt like a projected $6,000 cost savings seemed minimal.

The motion to waive attendance failed 3-2 with Council Members Michele Miller, Wayne Hasek and Maynard voting no.

Next, the council discussed Kawecki’s motion to go out for an RFP.

Council Member Randy Lubenow said he was in favor of the idea because the council does have a tendency of calling in other attorneys for various matters. Miller disagreed, saying she was pleased with the services provided thus far by Flaherty & Hood and that the council required their expertise.

“I’m concerned that if we keep churning our city attorney– this would be, what, the second or third RFP in as many years– I’m concerned that we would get less and even lower responses than we have in the past,” Maynard said.

The motion to go out for an RFP for a new city attorney failed 3-2 with Miller, Hasek and Maynard voting no.

The council also considered establishing a performance-based step system for non-union employees and also considered shifting the pay scale from a 10 step to an eight step system for 2025.

O’Neill said over his years in the industry he has found that an employee 10 step system, based on longevity pay, can often times work, but that there are benefits to a performance-based pay.

“My experience has been that it works well to help motivate employees,” O’Neill said of performance-based pay.

He said that now that the city has an evaluation system in place, it can be used in conjunction with this program to connect council expectations with staff aspirations.

Kawecki said that while she agrees evaluations are important, she had concerns about combining the changes.

“I don’t feel like we need to do both at the same time. I feel that if we knew who our administrator was going to be… it would be one thing… Moving forward with a new administrator, my concern is, what if it’s not a priority,” Kawecki said of performance evaluations.

O’Neill said that the council would have the staff and expertise, as well as a new Human Resources Director in place so that he believed the new system would work.

Maynard said, “I am on board with replacing strict, automatic longevity pay with performance pay… I agree with Jeff that going from 10 steps to 8 steps… hopefully what we’ll get out of that is improved performance from our employees,” Maynard said.

In a roll call vote, the motion to establish the new pay system and shift the pay scale passed 4-1 with Kawecki opposed.

In other action, the council approved the purchase of a new airport sewer lift station and force main.