MiddletownJournal.com

MONROE — Monroe City Council plans to discuss overall responsibilities of each administrative department and wage scales during its annual retreat today, March 28.

The retreat will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Council Chambers at the City Building, 233 S. Main St. The meeting, which normally runs five to six hours, is open to the public.

City Manager William Brock said the retreats typically have been to focus on the next year's expenditures.

"This year we're having the retreat a little earlier than normal so we're not really prepared to take a look at next year's budget yet especially due to the fiscal restraints of the economy right now. It's kind of hard to look forward and come up reasonable expectations of what revenues are going to be next year at this time," he said.

"So to start doing those types of planning the conversation is a little premature so what we plan to do is just take a look at the operations and prioritize those, and maybe set some goals and objectives for the upcoming year."

Brock said that one topic of discussion he plans to present to council at the meeting is the overall prioritization of the responsibilities of the city's administrative departments.

"It's really the beginning of the budget process to take a look at how council feels about prioritization and what departments do overall. And we're going to use that information to start in the direction of prioritizing the budget for next year," he said.

Brock said he also plans to hold a conversation about wage scales.

"The wage scales have been an on-going conversation. Some of the scales over the years have become quite large, and it's just trying to put them in order and put them in a reasonable range," he said.

For example, Brock said his salary range goes from $69,000 to $105,000 a year.

"So you see over the course of the years that range has become quite broad. So it's just an attempt to restructure the salary ranges, not to give anybody a raise, just to kind of restructure those to make more sense out of them," he said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.