GRAND RAPIDS – Mayor Marjory Obermyer was
forced to cast a tie-breaking vote Monday night after council members were split 2-2 on whether to pay two
village employees for their unused vacation time.Council members John Berry and Carolyn Erdody voted in
favor of giving village administrator Chad Hoffman and water superintendent Tony Wright their requested
payment for unused vacation time. Council members Curt Williams and Janet Borough voted against doing
so.Jeremy Treen and Sara Lewis were absent from the meeting.In casting her "yes" vote Obermyer
said, "I want us to bring it up at the beginning of the year so we can look at this policy."With
Obermyer’s vote in favor of the motion, Hoffman will be paid for 96 hours of unused vacation time from 2012.
Wright will be paid for 40 hours and will carry-over 55.5 unused vacation hours into 2014. The payouts will
be made at the hourly wage level for each employee. Hourly wages for both employees were not available
Monday night.Council, upon a motion by Erdody, also gave a first reading to a resolution that would set
council meetings for once a month as opposed to twice per month. The meeting schedule, if approved, would
alternate between the fourth and second Monday of each month.Williams called the motion
"counterproductive" and said that several years ago council decided there was enough going on in
the village to justify two council meetings per month."I am not sure why we would want to have fewer
meetings," he said.After the meeting, Erdody said a big reason she wanted to reduce council meetings to
one per month related to plans of Hoffman, the village administrator, to reduce his hours to 24 per week at
the beginning of the year.She feels Hoffman’s time would be better spent working on daily operations of the
village as opposed to being at council meetings.Also at Monday’s meeting, council members:• Approved raises
for Jeff Lirot, village maintenance technician, and fiscal officer Kristel Joseph. With the raise, Lirot
will make $19.04, and Joseph, $15.97.• Signed a document showing support for the Otsego School District’s
anti-bullying efforts.
