Montesano is getting behind in its bills, so it’s going to spend some money.
The City Council on Tuesday (Feb. 11), gave Mayor Vini Samuel the power to hire a temporary employee for the Clerk’s Office to help it catch up on its ambulance billing.
Samuel told the council that, “we are six months behind in our billing.”
That backlog is about $250,000 the city needs to collect, so it will hire a temporary part-time worker to spend about 30 hours per week in the Clerk’s Office while other workers catch up on sending bills out.
The city estimates hiring the Clerk’s Office worker to cost about $2,500 per month and that they would only work for two or three months.
In September, the city lost a longtime worker in the Clerk’s Office. Unfortunately, nobody was hired before the employee left. There was no overlap for the workers for training.
Today, the city finds itself with a six-month backlog of bills to send out. If the city doesn’t get those bills sent out within a year, it doesn’t get to collect on them.
The city hopes to hire somebody to cover shifts while the backlog of billing is eliminated.
In the meantime, the city will contract with Aberdeen Fire Department’s billing person to consult on Monte’s backlog. She will train the city’s worker in the best ways to tackle such a project. She will not work more than 10 hours per week at $40 per hour, unless approved by the Monte fire chief.
The council also cleared the way to hire a temporary worker for the clerk of the Municipal Court for about $720 per month not to exceed three months.
OTHER BUSINESS
Judge: The city put into writing the amount it will pay its municipal judge.
Every four years, the mayor appoints a municipal judge but the terms of compensation and duties expected had never been in writing. The municipal judge now is considered a contractor and will be paid $2,334.68 per month “for all his time, both judicial and administrative,” according to the city authored agreement. The judge also will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses incurred from attending the annual District and Municipal Court Judges Association conference.
Cleaning: BC Services of Elma, which does cleaning at City Hall in Montesano, also laid out in writing its services. For $855 per month, BC has agreed to clean twice per week. BC also set prices for additional tasks, such as cleaning windows and on-call bathroom chores. The council gave the mayor its blessing to enter into the contract.
