Offices will be open five days a week starting Jan. 9
By Barb Pert Templeton
It’s been nearly a decade since the Marine City offices operating hours were changed to four days a week, 10 hours a day. New City Manager Michael Reaves, who began his employment with the city in early October, recently requested the city go back to a five day a week schedule.
Stating that the long days were affecting the employees work life balance and wanting to be more available to the public, Reaves asked the city commission to return to having the offices open five days a week.
Reaves proposed switching back to an 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. schedule Monday through Friday and staying open on Thursday nights until 6 p.m. The city commission unanimously approved his request after some discussion.
Reaves composed a memo to the city commission outlining his reasoning for wanting to change the city office operating hours. Currently the hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Marine City Commissioner Jacob Bryson made the motion to change the city officer hours back to a five-day a week schedule.
At the recent city commission meeting on Dec. 5, Reaves said by the time Thursday rolls around lots of staff have already put in 70 hours.
“You’re burning them out, you are literally burning them out and it’s not good for the staff,” Reaves said.
He said Clerk Jason Bell is the first one in at 7 a.m. and when Reaves looks around at 7 p.m. he’s often there with the clerk and Treasurer Katie Posey too.
“It’s just too much, I want them to decompress and leave the office, go home and have dinner with their family and be able to have a semi normal life,” Reaves said, noting they are all often still texting each other and working on their home computers after 7 p.m.
“We need to change that mind set, we’re burning them, out, it’s not healthy for them and I think it leads to frustration in other areas,” he added.
Admitting not all the staff wants the hours to change, Reaves said he doesn’t have enough bodies to create a hybrid to please everyone. Reaves said the staff is running very lean at this point and they could actually use another body in the office but he’ll address that in the future.
The proposed new officer hours were Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and staying open on Thursdays until 6 p.m. He said there are lots of ways to communicate for the citizens now including using all the city’s new website offers.
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves proposed a change in the hours at the city offices.
“This is just a start of how we want to change how we do business, but I think it’s important to the staff that we recognize that they have a life outside of here,” Reaves said. ““Or we can keep the office hours we have and I drastically increase their salaries to compensate for no life outside the office, but that’s not a good choice either.”
Commissioner Brian Ross asked if Reaves felt he’d lose any employees if the change is made.
Reaves said he has no idea if he’ll lose employees if they switch the hours but he feels he will lose some if he doesn’t make the change. He noted that he will also reevaluate the situation quarterly to see how things are going.
“I will bend over backwards for the employees who feel impacted by this,” Reaves said.
Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick said the city also needs to look at the public too and they’ve had a lot of complaints about the Friday (being closed) issue and that has to be considered too.
Commissioner Jacob Bryson made the motion to implement the changing of the office hours and the motion was seconded by Commissioner William Klaassen.
Ross asked when the change would take place and Reaves said January 9, 2025.
Officials then unanimously approved the new operating hours for the city offices.
Marine City offices are located at 260 S. Parker Street.
