Thomas Christie Quotations

What we pay is competitive with other systems. The problem is, moving is expensive, and right now we don?t have anything in place to help out with that.

Since employees start over at step one when they are promoted, going from firefighter to lieutenant results in a loss of about $1.50 per hour, and lieutenant to captain results in a loss of about 50 cents per hour. But other departments have the same problem, specifically in the Police Department and the Water and the Community Appearance departments. In the Water and Sewer Board, you have many different levels of work, which makes it more likely that you will have promotion problems. That?s why it gets very expensive to fix all of the departments of the city at the same time. The cost depends on the size of the department.

I?d like to commend the commission for envisioning a metro jail. It makes sense. Unfortunately for every municipality here, it?s all about the money.

I see this as the most viable of four possible options. We could do away with the matrix altogether and go back to an 8 year top-out. Or we could do nothing at all. Or we could use Dickerson?s suggestion, or mine.

Realistically, it will probably be next year before we are actually able to get started.

That?s only because they?re working 24 hour shifts, which includes sleep time.

The city is certainly pleased to hear this project is going to be funded. This money, and our $25,000 grant, will go toward the first of probably two phases of renovation.