City still at work on position

A year after agreeing to establish a new city administrator position, Grovetown city officials are still fine-tuning the job description.

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"We've got a job description, somewhat of a job description," Mayor Dennis Trudeau said. "We're going and checking with different cities that have administrators and looking at their job descriptions."

The city council approved the new position in December 2005. City officials have examined descriptions of city administrator positions in Thomson and Washington, Trudeau said.

City Clerk Shirley Beasley said she looks forward to having a city administrator. As the city grows, which it has been doing rapidly in the past few years, her duties have grown as well. The city administrator will take over many of the tasks performed by the mayor and city clerk, such as writing local, state and federal grant applications and attending meetings.

Trudeau said he hopes to finalize the city administrator job description and begin searching for someone to fill the position soon.

"It'll probably be in the first part of the year," Trudeau said. "We'd like to get one on board maybe by June. That would give them a few months so I can relate where all the rocks are, so he doesn't fall in the water."

At their recent semi-monthly meeting, city council members approved the city's 2007 budget, which includes a 3.3 percent cost-of-living pay increase for all city employees.

"If the federal government can afford it, I know we can," Councilman David Daughtry said, adding that city employees received a 5 percent increase in this year's budget. "We don't have the option to throw away as much as they do."

The 2007 budget includes $3,891,100 in expected revenue into the city's general fund and $3,895,430 in expenses, which is a 12.15 percent increase compared to the 2006 budget.

Revenue into the city's Water and Sewer budget is expected to increase 3.82 percent to $1,571,258 compared to the 2006 budget of more than $1,513,000.