Council dispels nepotism concerns regarding transit driver applicant

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City council members said they weren’t concerned about nepotism being an issue regarding the potential hiring of a transit driver who is related to the couple who oversees the daily operation of the Transit Department.

“I don’t see a major conflict here,” said council member Jerry Joerger at Monday’s planning session. “As long as all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted, I don’t have a problem with this at all.”

City Administrator Steve Diers told the board that although the city recently increased the transit driver wages for part time to $16 per hour and full time to $17.50 per hour to encourage applications, the department has yet to garner much interest.

“Currently we have one full-time driver and six part-time drivers,” Diers said. “These drivers cover the four daily buses we have that operate in Charles City and regionally to Mason City.”

Diers explained that Steve Elthon is working toward obtaining the required Class C commercial driver’s license (CDL) with passenger endorsement, but also happens to be the brother and brother-in-law to Dan and Tammy Elthon of Circle K, who oversee the day-to-day operations of Transit, so there is concern that hiring Steve could violate the city’s nepotism policy.

“We just want to check with the council and find out if there is a concern of nepotism,” Diers told the council. “We don’t foresee any issues, but we want to make sure we aren’t setting ourselves up for trouble.”

Diers said he had spoken with the city’s labor law attorney, Michael Galloway, and Galloway said he didn’t see this as a pure nepotism issue since Circle K is a contract entity. Diers also said he wanted to be up front and transparent about the possible hire, and also make certain the council didn’t have concerns before Elthon put the time and money into acquiring his CDL and other licensing requirements.

“They aren’t looking to hire him over some other applicant just because they’re related to him,” said council member Phoebe Pittman. “It’s clear that it’s been difficult to hire drivers, so if you can get a driver at this point, we need to hire who we can.”

“If we had one opening with six applicants, it would be different than having six openings with one applicant,” added Mayor Dean Andrews.

Tammy Elthon told the council that the other drivers appear to have no concerns about Steve’s relationship, and that they just want to see another driver hired as soon as possible.

“I would have an issue if this was a different type of arrangement,” said council member Keith Starr. “It’s hard to show favoritism to a family member when you’re driving all the time.”

In other business on Monday, the council discussed change orders for the ambulance bay remodel project at the fire station and the Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) Project.

The total dollar amount of change orders for the ambulance bay is estimated to be just under $20,000. This includes nearly $4,500 in masonry work changes, over $3,000 to build temporary sleeping quarters in the truck bay, just under $5,800 to make the sleeping quarters permanent and nearly $4,000 to relocate the ship’s ladder. Other expenses included swapping the location of the office and dorm rooms, adding paint to the door frames and moving the overhead door controls.

The city is building office space for AMR ambulance as part of the latest three-year contract among the city, Floyd County and AMR, through the end of the fiscal year ending June 20, 2023. The contract states, “The city will supply adequate office/crew quarters and garage space to AMR for vehicles at no additional cost.”

The total cost increase for the WRRF change order is estimated at $42,930. This includes nearly $27,000 in estimated costs to replace a 12-inch air line between the blower building and digesters, since the existing line is too deteriorated to use. Also included in the change order is nearly $10,000 to excavate poor soil and replace it with structural backfill for an equipment pad at the headworks building.

Other items in the change order include revisions to the generator and automatic switch cable, adding and relocating fire hydrants, substituting gate valves for butterfly valves and adding pipe insulation to the water service line and some changes to piping, because exposed conditions were different than those shown in previous design plans.

The change orders are expected to be on the agenda for Monday’s meeting.

The council also discussed acceptance of the 2021 House Demolition Project, which will also be on the agenda at Monday’s meeting.

Popp Excavating was the general contractor for the project. City Engineer John Fallis told the council that that the work has been finished and the council can accept the completed project.

The project was completed at a total cost of $23,800. This amount includes the $12,550 bid price submitted by Popp and a change order amount of $11,250.

Fallis said the project initially included the demolition of the house and detached garage at 806 North Grand Avenue. Following the award of the contract, the city acquired a nuisance property at 312 15th Avenue. The change order, which the council approved in February, was negotiated to add the demolition to that property. Both houses have now been demolished and the lots cleared and reseeded for potential infill development or other use.

There were no other additional costs incurred during the project.