The Villages Daily Sun

BUSHNELL — City Council member Dale Swain questioned the tentative salaries requested for several employees Monday evening during the 2006-2007 budget workshop.

One of Swain’s concerns was that the city was paying approximately $100,000 in salaries to four library employees. He said he was unaware if any had degrees or certification in library science.

Other council members pointed out that the Bushnell library system has five employees and the library is open six days a week.

According to Swain, however, even if the library were open 60 hours a week, it could operate with one full-time employee and one part-timer, rather than five.

Swain said he also is concerned that a library manager without a degree would be earning more than a school media specialist (librarian) with a degree. Under the new pay schedule proposed by the city administration, the library manager would be paid approximately $40,000 a year.

Council member Dale Barnes said all library employees attend training conducted by the county library manager, who has a master’s degree. He also quoted statistics that indicate that the Bushnell library is the second-busiest in the county, behind the The Villages branch of the Sumter County Library System.

Swain also was critical of the employee compensation study performed for the city by Evergreen Solutions. The study was requested by the council members for use in comparing salaries paid by Bushnell to the salaries paid by other cities and private firms in the area.

Swain was particularly critical of the fact that the study compared salaries only, and not benefit packages.

“We have one of the best benefit packages in the area,” he said.

Swain compared Bushnell to Sumter County government, the city of Wildwood and the Sumter County School District, and said that Bushnell’s benefit package was far better than any of those and that factor should have been considered in the study.

No action was taken during the workshop and no recommendations were made by council members for amendments to the tentative budget for the coming fiscal year.

A public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 6 in council chambers at City Hall to give residents an opportunity to make comments or ask questions concerning the budget. The amended 2005-2006 budget and the proposed 2006-2007 budget would be approved during a second public hearing tentatively scheduled for Sept. 18. Until then, amendments can be made to any area of the proposed budget, according to City Clerk Joy Coleman.