(Zeeland, MI - WHTC News) - In an area with double-digit unemployment, trying to fill a job vacancy shouldn’t be that big of a problem.
Apparently it is in Zeeland, where a new General Manager of the Zeeland Board of Public Works has yet to be named, months after David Walters left to assume a staff position with the Michigan Public Power Agency. Last night, the City Council, for the second time in eight weeks, rejected a recommendation by the city’s Personnel Committee to raise the salary range for the post to as high as over 157 thousand dollars annually. Walters was making around 120 grand when he departed last June.
The committee said that the low salary has made it tough to attract qualified candidates for being the next operational leader of the municipal utility. Opponents claim that, with cutbacks and wage freezes in most other departments due to budget constraints, such a pay hike would be inappropriate at this time. There is no word as to when or how this job vacancy will be filled in the wake of this decision.
Zeeland’s council last night did approve a one-percent pay increase, effective in July, for all non-union workers in both city departments and the BPW. This was a compromise between the City Manager’s office, who recommended no hike, and the BPW board, which wanted a two-percent increase.
-Gary Stevens, WHTC/WYVN News
