Council discusses pay raise for sanitation superintendent

NORWALK — City discussed a raise for the superintendent of sanitation and reorganization of the police department during city council's Tuesday meeting. The sanitation department operates off the city's income taxes, accounting for one-fourth of the city's income tax and has a yearly budget of $1.4 million. While many other jurisdictions have privatized their sanitation services, Norwalk remains in-house. Mayor Dave Light shared during council sanitation superintendent Jeff Montgomery is the lowest-paid department head in the city and the position has been passed over for pay raises. Montgomery is able to retire in about two years, Light said, and he doesn't want him to leave the city early. "He's done an excellent job. He runs a very tight ship," he said. "Superintendent pay has never been bumped up or increased along with the rest of the department heads over the years." The administration proposed legislation to adjust the salary for the position. This would create two pay steps above Montgomery's pay now. Still, he would be the lowest-paid department head. Councilmember Steve Schumm said he supports the pay raise and commended Montgomery for all the work he's done in the sanitation department. Councilmembers Matt Doughty and Jordy Horowitz said the city should look into reviewing personnel and their salaries once or twice a year to be proactive. An ordinance presented to council would reorganize the police department. Police chief Mike Conney said in order to increase the functionality of the department. The ordinance would reduce the number of captains from three to two and increase patrolmen from 16 to 17. With this change, Conney said, captains will have more freedom to perform managerial duties. He said he'd like to have one captain assigned to patrol operations, overseeing shifts, training and scheduling. Another ordinance presented to council is a request of $60,610 for repairs to the water tower. Aaron Osborn, assistant superintendent of general services, said the city has fixed the fill line once but there's now a leak workers can't repair. Light also told council Norwalk is eligible for two grants from the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council. The first grant is $2,000 to be awarded to a deserving organization in the community. The second grant is $37,375 to be used for energy-efficient efforts in the city, like installing LED lights or signs. Previously, the city used this grant money for improving city hall. Light proposed the city use these funds to install electric car charging stations.