Waukon City Council approves union contracts, begins to overhaul personnel policies for City employees

by Bob Beach

The Waukon City Council met in special session Monday, April 13 to discuss the City's union contracts and personnel policies for supervisors. The Council unanimously approved three-year contracts with the unions representing City public works employees and police officers that includes an average three-percent pay increase per year.
The Council also agreed to eliminate compensatory time for salaried supervisory employees, except in the case of emergency situations. In consideration of compensatory time already accrued for this year, the Council voted to award all supervisors a maximum of 180 hours of compensatory time under the condition that the time be used by January 1, 2016. The Council also voted to set a policy not to allow vacation days to roll over from year to year and to require all current accrued vacation days to date to be used within one year.
The Council also reviewed a draft of the Comprehensive Plan and Capital Improvements Plan developed by Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission and agreed on a number of changes to be made before the Council formally considers the plan during its regular meeting scheduled for Monday, April 20.