DILLON -More than a dozen city employees, including 10 police officers, finally got paid for July after an, at-times, contentious special meeting Friday.
“When somebody called me, I spent 45 minutes on the phone reassuring that person you are going to get paid, because I thought you were going to get paid, I look like a jackass after that,” City Council member Jeremy Crawford said.
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Dillon’s City Council held a recent special meeting to approve a new budget that corrected an unexpected deficit in the city’s general fund and other items in their budget. Last month, Mayor Mike Klakken refused to sign checks of 10 police officers and five city workers until the budget could be balanced.
The council approved the mayor’s plan to cover a $94,000 deficit in the general fund by borrowing $250,000 from the city’s water maintenance fund.
Once this was approved at the special meeting on Aug. 7th, the mayor immediately signed the checks and gave them to the employees.
“It was a good feeling, it really was, because I really felt bad to have not to, you know, not paying them,” Klakken said.
Some council members criticized the mayor for not informing them about the situation and urged him to create procedures that will ensure this won’t happen again.
“We are talking about people’s livelihoods, we are talking about people who are still coming to work even though haven’t been paid, and they are employees that get paid once a month,” Council member Joleen Schultz said.
Dillon’s police chief hopes this won’t happen again.
“Could it not be in the back of your mind when Christmas is a couple of months away?Many of the officers have young families, and they don’t know if they’re going to be affording Christmas presents,” Chief Joel Stewart said.
