Marine City employees could get incentive bonus’
By Barb Pert Templeton
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves gave members of the city commission an overview of the budget he will be proposing for the coming year at a special budget workshop on April 10. Commissioner Patirica May was absent but the rest of the commission was in attendance along with Reaves and City Treasurer Katy Posey.
An interesting addition to the FY 2025-2026 budget Reaves proposed was a $5,000 line item in the Human Resources Department for an employee incentive and appreciation program.
“I’ve utilized this type of budgeting in the past budgets I’ve done in two different locations and sometimes we don’t have the ability to recognize outstanding work by employees across the board,” Reaves said.
Simply getting a paycheck and saying thank-you isn’t always enough it would be nice to say here’s a $500 stipend for your outstanding work or for saving the city money, Reaves explained.
“When you start spreading that it’s an incentive to the other employees that perhaps don’t have the same work productivity mindset, they see others getting it and say why not me?” Reaves said. “It’s a recognition program and think it’s very minimal and I would say we limit the amount to $500 per person.”
City department heads and others can recommend candidates for the bonus and it would be at the city manager’s discretion.
“I’ve utilized this before and I’ve had a lot of people all of sudden saying I appreciate that, I’ve been doing the work of two people and you saw that,” Reaves said. “I had other people come to me asking ‘what do I have to do to up my game’? It picks up that service level from everybody.”
Marine City Mayor Jennifer Vandenbossche said she liked the forward planning City Manager Michael Reaves laid out for the FY 2025-2026 city budget.
Another section of the proposed budget had line items for training sessions for the different city department heads and deputy department heads.
“We need to up our training to staff members, department heads and others,” Reaves said. “And you’ll see two boards that have money put in there to facilitate training – the historical commission and planning commission – we never seem to offer them any specialized training.”
Other budget proposals included a four percent raise for the administrative staff and the department heads. In addition, the department heads would each get a $1,000 stipend.
Reaves noted that sometimes there’s a lack of incentive to become a department head simply due to the work load and responsibility so the wages and stipend could be a motivating factor.
“I think the raises we are recommending are well within line and very reasonable for what they are doing,” he added.
The two-hour workshop touched on many aspects of the budget that the commission will be considering for adoption in May. The bottom line was to get a budget adopted that’s workable going forward, the city manager said.
Reaves also told official he’s doing his best to address many problems that were in place when he arrived in October, most that have been ignored for years.
“Look at this last six-months, ever since that guy came here and caused all these issues,” Reaves joked, as his tenure with the city began last fall.
“I don’t know how you go forward long term until we get this under control. We’re at the last kick the can down the road guys, it’s got to get adopted and a plan put in place.”
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves
“No, you found all these issues, you didn’t cause them,” Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick replied.
Mayor Jennifer Vandenbossche said one of the most important aspects of the budget Reaves presented is the forward planning.
“I feel that if we don’t do these things now, we’re going to create the same cycle over again,” Vandenbossche said.
“I don’t know how you go forward long term until we get this under control,” Reaves said. “We’re at the last kick the can down the road guys, it’s got to get adopted and a plan put in place.”
The mayor said she’d be in support of using the general fund to keep things in place in the budget as Reaves proposed. She said it’s important to maintain things including everything from the equipment, training and additional pay for employees to all the other ideas and supplements presented.
Commissioner Jacob Bryson said he agreed with the mayor and all the changes will make a good foundation for moving the city forward.
“I thought this was going to be a hard fight,” Councilman Sean O’Brien said.
“No, we don’t have a whole lot of choices anymore,” Hendrick replied as the city manager said he didn’t mean to put them in that position. “You didn’t put us in this position, this is just years and years and years of neglect; eventually we’ve got to do it or the whole city is just going to keep crumbling.”
“This is just years and years and years of neglect; eventually we’ve got to do it or the whole city is just going to keep crumbling.”
Marine City Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick
Posey said it’s really hard as a department head to do any planning without having a concrete plan in place. For example, seeing employees needing tools and equipment to do a job and finding they’ve never been planned for at all.
“It’s very hard, on a daily basis, when there’s no clear direction of where were going,” she added.
Officials then agreed to hold a public hearing on May 15 as a prelude to adopting the budget.
To view the proposed city budget in its entirety, visit the Marine City website at cityofmarinecity.org.
