Grievance committee hears from auditor

In a meeting of the temporary grievance committee for the City of Carrington, council members Chase Pederson, Al Trader and Neil Fandrich presided over the meeting and heard the grievances filed by city auditor Jennifer Gast relating to city policy 3.11 Grievance Procedure.

During the meeting held on Friday, September 16 at city hall, the following grievances related to time sheets were heard:

• Whether a water plant employee marked on his time sheet the appropriate time. The video at the gate of the water plant shows that the said employee was 56 minutes late on one of the days in question.

• Whether there exists inaccurate time sheet submissions for the said employee for eight days with a deficit to the city.

• Whether the public works director, public works committee, the mayor or the finance and legal committee addressed the time sheet discrepancies.

Councilman Trader said they have been addressed.

• Whether or not there are gender discriminations in the time sheet discrepancies.

• Whether two water plant employees are being treated differently than females employed by the city.

Councilman Pederson said there is not enough evidence to show gender discrimination in the information they were given.

Gast attests that on several occasions, a water plant employee had marked on his time sheet that he was at work, but was not and on one occasion was seen walking his dog when he was supposedly at the water plant.

In her grievance letter, Gast asked to know why the public works director did not address the discrepancy.

The grievances were then turned over to City Attorney Leo Ryan for review and findings.

Carrington Mayor Tom Erdmann explained that the video camera at the gate of the water plant is not sufficient record of the comings and goings of water plant employees and it is normal for water plant employees to begin work very early in the morning from their home, while not being on the premises of the water plant.

When asked if the idea to purchase a time clock for city employees was to combat time sheet discrepancies, Erdmann said the idea came about to streamline payroll not out of any grievances submitted to the committee.

At the end of the meeting, Ryan commended the committee for doing a good job to preserve the integrity of the grievance process.