Friday, May 3, 2024
For years, city and county leaders have worried about the impacts of low pay on employee retention rates, especially among those who work in law enforcement.
On Monday, the city of Granbury experienced a walk-out that necessitated an emergency meeting of the City Council.
The abrupt departures didn’t involve police officers, though. The employees were electric workers and city officials felt that the void they left behind needed immediate attention.
Mayor Jim Jarratt opened the 1 p.m. meeting with this statement:
“It’s been brought to the City Council’s attention this morning that we’ve had three members of the city’s line crew terminate their employment to accept other employment. None of the now former employees gave any notice and have left the city without an adequate distribution line crew.
“As such, an urgent public necessity exists as these immediate vacancies have placed the city of Granbury in an imminent and reasonably unforeseeable situation inclusive of power failure, transportation failure and the possible interruption of communication facilities.”
City Manager Chris Coffman told the council, “We’re kind of in a bind, to say the least.”
He explained that over the weekend, Kenneth Causey, director of electric distribution for the city, worked to find a solution, reaching out to several companies. Only one, 3S Electrical Distribution, was able to provide on-call help, Coffman said.
Causey said that although he has two second-class linemen still on the job, they must be supervised by him, a first-class lineman or a journeyman lineman.
Councilman Eddie Rodriquez asked whether those who walked off the job had been paid “market rate.”
Causey replied that their pay had been “in the ballpark.”
Coffman said that the workers had been told that changes in pay are planned for January.
“We told them that and since we don’t know what that adjustment is going to be, at this point, we couldn’t commit to anything,” Coffman said. “So, they said, see you later.”
All members of the City Council were present for the hastily called meeting.
They unanimously approved entering into a contract with 3S Electrical Distribution.
