City adopts early retirement program

“We’ve had some people at age 62 that would like to retire, and due to health insurance it’s almost virtually impossible,” McFarland said. “So the council came up with a plan to help subsidize their insurance so they can go early if they want to.”

The adopted resolution lays out the criteria that must be met for city employees to be eligible for the program.

Employees must be at least 62 years old at the time of the resolution’s adoption or subsequently turn 62 after its adoption and must have worked as a full-time employee for the city for at least 20 years.

An employee electing to take part in the program must file a notice with the city administrator within 10 days of the resolution’s adoption or within 10 days of the employee’s turning 62 and must execute a retirement agreement in a form acceptable to the city.

After filing a notice to take part in the program, the employee will have 21 days to rescind their decision.

Participating employees will receive “a single, unmatched contribution of $15,000 to the employee’s account with the city’s 401(a) Money Purchase Plan through ICMARC (International City/County Management Association-Retirement Company).”

The city administrator and mayor are instructed in the resolution to provide notice to all eligible employees at the time of adoption, and to each employee that becomes subsequently eligible.

The program will end Sept. 30, 2018 and only employees reaching eligibility between the resolution’s adoption and that date will be able to take part in the program. Upon the program’s expiration, the city administrator will report to the mayor and council regarding the amount of participation in the program.

Also on Tuesday, the Park Hills City Council met for its first work session of 2018, spending the bulk of the meeting discussing updates to city codes to align with state statutes.

First, the council voted to approve an ordinance to transfer surplus property at 1380 Woodlawn Drive to the Park Hills Industrial Development Authority.

Next, City Attorney Ed Pultz refreshed the council on the reason for needing input on updating city codes to keep up with state statutes. He described the process of a third party examining city ordinances for irregularities with state statute.

“Part of it is because the criminal code has been, basically, just redrafted,” Pultz said. “It became effective in January of 2017. We’re always trying to keep our codes up to date. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t. These people come in and kind of go through everything and point to things we should consider.

“A lot of the changes are not extremely significant, but some of them clearly are. So what I’m trying to do is take a handful at each work session and talk through them.”

First, the council discussed city codes related to peddling and soliciting. The current process of licensing door-to-door salesmen was explained, and the difference between solicitors highlighted.

The council gave input and voiced concerns about verifying the safety of individuals licensed to do such work while making distinctions for nonprofit entities like Girl Scouts and additional distinctions for “panhandlers.”

Pultz said he would take the input of the council and arrange the related codes, then return it to the council for codification.

Codes pertaining to tobacco sales were also briefly discussed before the council moved on to discussing the use of "blue lights" in personal vehicles of fire department personnel.

Pultz described the privileges associated with the use of such lights regarding parking, red lights and stop signs, movement direction on roads and other vehicles yielding right-of-way.

Fire Chief John Reeves said in order to receive a blue light for use a firefighter must be with the department for six months and will generally drive another emergency vehicle while being observed.

He said the department probably has between eight and 10 blue lights in use by members of the department, but they are generally only used during more serious calls.

After hearing from the chief and council, Pultz said he would again use the input to shape the codes to state standards.

Next, the council discussed progress on a proposed Neighborhood Watch program for Park Hills. The council agreed that before involving the public, it would be best to ensure that the police department is on board and able to help start the program.

Next, Reeves spoke to the council about rural fire agreement rate increases, beginning by giving the council a list of surrounding departments and their rates. Reeves said Park Hills currently has the lowest rates in the area.

He asked for the council’s input regarding the best way to charge rates, particularly for commercial properties, which can be difficult to accurately classify. Reeves had previously suggested a $5 a year increase for five years.

After discussion on various rates, the council decided to gather information about what current commercial properties are being charged and how many there are, so as to most effectively increase rates.