Archive for Thursday, August 21, 2008
Dingman gets raise from city
August 21, 2008
City Administrator Jeff Dingman was given a 4 percent salary increase at Monday's Baldwin City Council meeting.
The city council was unanimous in its approval of his job evaluation, but not for the amount of salary increase. It raised Dingman's yearly pay to $82,634.
The council met in executive session for around 45 minutes Monday to discuss the evaluation. When they returned, Mayor Gary Walbridge entertained a motion regarding the positive performance and the 4 percent raise.
"I'm in favor of the evaluation approval and he's done a very good job," said Council Member Ted Brecheisen Jr. "I am not for the 4 percent increase and will vote against it. But, I think he's done a good job."
The motion was seconded and approved by a 4-1 vote. Dingman has been city administrator since 2003. Numerous projects were completed this year, including the $1.8 million Downtown Streetscape Project and the $1 million Women's Bridge renovation. He also oversaw the overhaul of the city's comprehensive plan among other items.
"A majority of the council members are very pleased with Jeff's performance and believe his salary should be raised accordingly," said Council Member Tony Brown. "We couldn't find any gross deficiencies. We think he's doing a good job."
It was the biggest of action items at an otherwise tame council meeting. Brown did have a question for Dingman and another item to inform the council about. He wanted to know the status of the search for the city's first full-time fire chief. The new position has been discussed for years and was approved. The position was advertised earlier this year.
"With the fire chief, I've decided to take applications again," said Dingman. "We had eight candidates. There were two that I was interested in, but one was part-time.
"I just asked Darcy (Huggins, city clerk) to advertise it again," he said. "I will be more aggressive about it this time."
Brown, who chairs the safety committee, also told the council that he'd been in discussions with the county's emergency management office regarding requirements by the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
"We all need to go through training to be compliant with FEMA," Brown told council members. "If we don't, we wouldn't be eligible for payments if there was a disaster here."
He said the training involves an Internet training site and only takes about 45 minutes.
The council also approved a bid Musselman and Hall Contractors, LLC, of Kansas City, Mo., for the Midland Railway Enhancement project. The bid was for $162,509.40. The city is not involved in funding the improvements to the tracks and depot, but is serving as the financial arm. Midland, the Santa Fe Trail Historical Society and the Kansas Department of Transportation is paying for the improvements. Midland and the historical society will give the city its portions of the project, the city will pay the contractor and will be reimbursed by KDOT within a week to 10 days of payments.
21 August 2008
at 8:05 a.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
Is Ted Brechisen the only one up there with any common sense?They need to lower the chief of police's and Bill Winegers salary because of their negetive performance ,. It's time to put a freeze on hiring and pay raises . All other cities are trying to save money but this bunch just don't get it. Hang in there Ted, help is on it;s way. Think about it.
21 August 2008
at 3:05 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
p_zinzer (Anonymous) says…
I think Jeff can go ahead and plug this story into the automatic news story software for release next August without any changes. There are no performance requirements for a management job with the city, short of showing up for work occasionally.
21 August 2008
at 4:02 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
If we all get together things can be a lot diffrent around here by next August. Something has to be done before they break this town. It;s time to rally together. p_zinzer I like the way you think.
21 August 2008
at 4:32 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
NanCrisp (Anonymous) says…
I agree with 1-6. The rest of us are having to figure out how to make our families' shrinking incomes stretch farther. Most folks I know have either fixed/frozen wages or have actually lost income over the past couple of years (i.e.: business owners). Our City staff should join us in this invigorating experience.
21 August 2008
at 5:47 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
p_zinzer (Anonymous) says…
Well, funny you should say that. There happens to be an election happening in Spring 2009 where a key position, namely mayor, is up for election. The mayor is in charge of the city staff and should have the power to get rid of the dead wood and hire competent, hard-working people who actually believe in using their talents to help the citizens and businesses of Baldwin City.
There are also two City Council positions up for re-election. It is my humble opinion that we need to re-elect Ms. Cleavinger and replace Mr. Jardon with someone who is much more interested in promoting the growth of Baldwin City (or we are in for a long, hard time if Edgerton captures the buildout from the BNSF Intermodal Facility and we're left with nothing).
It doesn't take p_zinzer to make these changes. it takes all of us to vote in April and make it known that we want things to change. Tell Mr. Walbridge now that you want to see him change things or he can guarantee he'll be out of office next year.
21 August 2008
at 8:56 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
Mayor Walbridge is a known waffler, he didn;t get mayor because of his qualifications, he got elected because we had no other choice, now we do. Let's all stick together and make this work,we'll remember today as the beginning of the end, the end of this administration.
22 August 2008
at 12:03 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
Isn;t it odd that Jeff Dingman took a few days off at the same time that the news of his raise came out in the paper, call up there today and ask for him.I hope he enjoyes his raise because next year at this time he will be working simewhere else. Time for a big change downtown. Think about it.
23 August 2008
at 8:22 a.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
In today;s Topeka Capitol on the front page is an article on how Topeka is cutting costs. One o the way's is by eliminating step increases and cost of living raises. What are our leaders doing to save money in Baldwin, does giving Jeff Dingman a raise count? I hope they don;t break our nice little town before election. What's in your wallet?
26 August 2008
at 2:08 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
kermit (Anonymous) says…
just curious 123456, you said we had a choice this time around for mayor. (I believe we had a choice last time too.)
Who else is running this time? And have we even determined that Gary W. is going to run for re-election? It's probably not too soon to be thinking about this. Seems like the natives in BC are getting restless. Perhaps some of my fellow posters should consider throwing their name into the hats.
Also remember Tony Brown may not be back on city commission if he wins his bid for the state house. We need some good folks to consider public service.
26 August 2008
at 3:31 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
Right you are Kermit, we had a choice last time and neither one was very good, we chose the best of the worst. Geary Walbridge wasn;t very honest with us when he ran. Lets start looking for honest canidates and keep in touch. We can do it, this just can;t g on like this.
26 August 2008
at 10:19 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
I would vote for Tony Brown just to get him out of town,he is another one that has a problrm with our money burning a hole in his pocket. I we unite and start making ourselves heard people will want to run for office.
27 August 2008
at 12:57 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
Why weren;t the no u turn signs to park downtown put back up after the downtown renovation, they weren;t trying to save money were they, they shure weren't trying to save lives. Run for your life when you cross the street that's like open range for stupid drivers.
27 August 2008
at 1 p.m.
Suggest removal
Permalink
123456 (Anonymous) says…
I can;t believe the safety commite isn;t on top of this problem down town.. Here Kitty Kitty.