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A lengthy discussion at the January 8 Ulysses City Council meeting turned into a new policy voted into existence at the January 22 meeting. At issue was employee discounts, specifically at Bentwood Golf Course, where city employees were sold items at a large discount, and City Administrator Luke Grimes - and City Attorney Lynn Koehn - believed the council should have a set policy in place if the practice was to continue. Golf Course pro shop manager Teresa Gutierrez had been selling golf products at the golf course to city employees at wholesale cost, and Grimes said if that was going to be the policy, the council needed to approve it.
The council could make it policy, nix it and make employees pay full price, or establish an employee discount higher than wholesale, but less than what the general public pays. Grimes said it was not a disciplinary action against Gutierrez.
Grimes presented five options to the city council January 22:
•Option 1 - employees are allowed to purchase retail products (other than alcoholic drinks) at wholesale cost.
•Option 2 - as an employee benefit, all city employees are allowed to purchase retail products (other than alcoholic drinks) at wholesale cost.
•Option 3 - as an employee benefit, city employees are allowed to purchase retail products (other than alcoholic drinks) at 50 percent of regular listed price.
•Option 4 - as an employee benefit, city employees are allowed to purchase food and non-alcoholic drinks at 50 percent of regular listed price.
•Option 5 - as an employee benefit city employees are allowed to purchase retail products (other than alcoholic drinks) at an employee discount to be determined by the city administrator and golf course clubhouse manager.
Councilman Ken Warner asked Grimes to add option 5.
“I just feel it’s not our job to sit up here and debate do we sell this for a dollar, or a dollar and a quarter or a dollar and a half,” Warner said. “So if we need to have a policy - and our lawyer seems to think we do - if we’re going to put a policy in place and say this is what we’re going to do, then leave the details of putting it in place, and so forth, to the clubhouse manager and Luke. Because if we set those limits tonight and in 60 days they decide those aren’t quite right (and) they should be changed, they can’t change it.”
The city staff - Grimes and Gutierrez - should make that decision, Warner said. It’s not for the council to decide, that’s why they hired the city administrator, Warner added.
“They can make those decisions and put it in play and we’re not up here taking our time debating do we sell it for a dollar, or 75 cents or a dollar and a half,” Warner reiterated. “I don’t think that’s our responsibility as council members. Our responsibility is putting the concept in place and now put it in their hands and they can make those changes based on the fluctuations in the prices, and so forth, without us having to debate it.”
Councilman Mark Diaz supported option 4, a 50 percent employee discount.
“The reason I support that is I understand our employees are having lunch out there and they’re having their drinks and their water and I have no problem even giving water to the employees who are working at this time,” Diaz said. “I think there’s going to be a price set on merchandise anyway, per Luke and per the manager, I do not think we need to sell retail products, or we need to sell the golf bags and the golf clubs at a cheaper price to our employees when the clubhouse is owned by the public. So if you’re going to do that, it needs to be opened up to the public at the same price.”
Diaz said the council needs to set a standard that everybody is treated fairly because they are taxpayers.
“Everybody out here pays for those golf bags or whatever we have to pay,” Diaz said. “So I have no problem with employees having discounts on their food so they don’t have to leave. I have no problem with the drinks, I have no problem putting a cooler out there for the employees to drink what they’re going to drink during working hours, but I don’t feel that’s a benefit. That’s not a benefit, it’s a privilege. And to me, we supply benefits by retirement, we’ve supplied benefits by insurance and we supply benefits by letting them have free golf, and paying their wages.”
Councilman John Duran thought Option 2 - employees play wholesale cost - was the best option.
“I think most places give you stuff at retail price, and I don’t think giving our employees water is going to break us,” he said.
Mayor Tim McCauley said the city has bigger fish to fry than be fighting over this policy.
“I can tell you right now, being a golfer and being around that area, we don’t lose that much money,” McCauley said. “We don’t hardly lose any at all. I don’t have a vote on it, but I think five is a pretty good option.”
Warner said he personally doesn’t think there has to be a policy and Grimes said the council doesn’t need to be concerned with low-level administrative things.
“I think option 5 is terrific,” Grimes added. “Just a great thought to set a policy that just establishes the right of the administration to take care of that for you.”
Koehn recommended to add it applies uniformly to all city personnel.
Diaz wants to avoid any corruption, adding he trusts the city employees, but corruption can happen.
“We need to make sure that there’s a fairness that’s going to be there for everybody and we need to determine who those are, if it’s the employees, or it’s the council or is whoever, elected officials,” Diaz said. “Because that’s why I brought this up.”
“Ken’s point is that, that determination is why you hired me,” Grimes said. “That’s Ken’s point, and not a single one of these options mitigates the risk of corruption, not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 changes the risk of corruption.”
Diaz said the council needs to determine who is going to set the discount and who gets it.
“First of all, we hire people that aren’t crooks,” McCauley said. “Teresa’s not a crook and I’m going to name names.”
“I’m not telling you she’s a crook,” Diaz implored. “I’m not implying that. What I’m implying, Tim, is that it can go on anywhere.”
Diaz mentioned corruption that happened in the past, but Warner said that’s why they hired Grimes.
“If he knows that’s going on then it becomes his responsibility to deal with it,” Warner said.
“The one clarification I’ll make is no one has been disciplined, there was no wrongdoing,” Grimes said. “I just discovered she had had this sort of defacto policy, there was nothing wrong with it, just Lynn’s advice if we’re going to have something let’s get it set in stone. I want to be very clear, Teresa did not do anything wrong.”
The council approved option 5 by a 3-2 vote, with Diaz and Duran dissenting and Terry Maas absent.
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