Great Bend City Council Gary Parr renewed his request Monday to award one-time $500 bonuses to city employees this year. He made a motion to that effect and it was seconded by Councilman Davis Jimenez. Both voted in favor of the motion. The motion failed with “no” votes from councilmembers Kevyn Soupiset, Jolene Biggs and Tina Mingenback. Councilman Cory Urban abstained, saying he has relatives who work for the City, so it would be a conflict of interest. Councilman Alan Moeder was absent.
Parr has brought this up at previous meetings, suggesting the council could use part of the money it has not spent that was budgeted for an assistant city administrator. He first suggested a bonus for first responders but later amended his position to include all of the City’s 160 employees. That would come to about $80,000.
On Nov. 17, he suggested a one-time bonus for all law enforcement, EMS and fire department employees – approximately 60 persons – for a total of $30,000.” He added that would leave approximately $105,000 of the money set aside for the unfilled administrative assistant program.
This week, he said he had listened to concerns and suggestions voiced at previous meetings, and he had contacted 47 City employees. He asked them about the objections that they would expect a bonus every year.
“They were offended by that,” Parr said. “47 for 47 were offended by that. They said, ‘One of the conditions for me being employed with the City, is I had to be able to read.’ And they said, if it’s in black and white, and it says, this allocation is going to be for a one-time bonus allocation for 2025 only, then they’re going to take that at face value; they can read. And so I’m coming back with this same item that I believe is right. I believe it’s fair for our people. The money is there. ... Let’s give it back to our employees.”
It was also suggested at the last meeting that the $80,000 fails to add in extra to cover the taxes.
All 47 also agreed that they would not mind having to pay the taxes on a $500 bonus, Parr said.
Parr asked, if the money isn’t given to employees, where will it go?
Councilwoman Jolene Biggs responded, “I think you can probably go to every department head, and they can probably have five to seven items that they could use that money for. ... I don’t want to take anything from the employees; they’re all great employees. I appreciate all of them but I do believe that to be fiscally responsible, there are departments that cut their budgets and there are things that are needed.” She gave an example of a camera that needed to be replaced to check on sewer lines. “You need those funds sometimes to take care of those problems.”
Urban, while noting he would abstain, said the City has other positions that haven’t been filled, but there are always costs that come up. Most years they can be covered with year-end transfers. “We did zero last year,” he said. “We held it all back because of the litigation with the dragstrip, and if we hadn’t done that, we would have been searching for another $700,000 to spend.” He concluded that the council will be looking at the year-end wrap-up in a couple of weeks and will decide what to do with any money available.
Parr said his proposal to spend $80,000 on bonuses would still leave $55,000 that hasn’t been spent on the assistant administrator position.
Administrator report
Parr’s motion came during the portion of the meeting set aside for councilmember reports. City Administrator Logan Burns also made his regular report. He noted:
• More burning will take place at the compost site for three or four days, starting Dec. 8. Crews will try to do this work when smoke isn’t being blown toward the City.
• The pool concept committee is ready to make its presentation at the Dec. 15 meeting. “We plan on a pool concept with just over 11,000 square foot that will include features such as a lazy river, two diving boards, a fly-time slide, open body slide, swimming lanes, and then features for the littles. We’re excited to unveil this to the public, to showcase what that will look like in 2027.”
• The GBPD’s Shop with a Cop will help 60 kids from 40 families on Dec. 10. And then Walmart is putting together meals that will each feed 10 people.
• Burns gave a shout out to Addie Crites, Amanda Gaddis and Scott Keeler for the Home for the Holidays celebration on Nov. 29, and to John Gruber, the shop mechanic at Public Works, who is the Employee of the Month. He has worked for the City for over 34 years.
Meeting at a glance
Here is a quick look at Monday’s Great Bend City Council meeting:
• Abatements were approved for nuisance properties at 3118 128th St. and 1814 Adams St. A citizen who has had to clean up his property in the past asked to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting and said his landlord should have to face the same rules. He was referred to the Buildings Inspections department’s code enforcement staff.
• Andrew Murphy from the Great Bend Tribune asked to speak during the public comment section of the meeting, as he had questions about Great Bend Economic Development. Mayor Cody Schmidt referred to the rule that items on the agenda are not acceptable topics for that portion of the meeting. Because GBED Director Jason Kuilan was on the agenda to make his monthly report, Murphy was told to “come back in two weeks.”
• The council approved JEO as the consulting firm for the Safe Streets for All (SS4A) study. The council previously accepted the grant that will pay $160,000 of the $200,000 cost. The initiative involves hiring engineering consultants and one requirement was to put out a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). The City posted the RFQ and three firms submitted applications.
• The City approved the release of an RFP draft scope (that is, a detailed outline of a project with a formal Request for Proposal document) for work pertaining to improvements to the Airport Industrial Complex water tower. Utilities Director Darren Doonan said the work is to satisfy requirements stemming from the 2024 Public Water Supply inspections by the EPA and KDHE. He added that the action approved Monday will not satisfy all of those requirements.
• The 2026 property and casualty insurance renewal was pulled from the agenda. Due to the bad weather earlier in the day, the representative from Gallagher was not available for the presentation.
