Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A question over volunteer hours was quickly resolved at the Farmington City Council meeting Monday night.
Clerk treasurer Barbara Dial-Flomer and Mayor Ron Dugan
At issue was how to address 165 hours in what was thought to be volunteer time by city Clerk-Treasurer Barbara Dial-Flomer since last year.
In April 2012, when Mayor Ron Dugan took office, Dial-Flomer was putting in an extra five hours per week as volunteer time at the 30-hour-per-week job. She continued the practice under the direction of Dugan and in July of last year, she signed a general volunteer agreement with the city.
This year, at the insistence of city council members Noreen Ewing and Kelly Turk, the mayor began to look into the matter.
He found out that it was against the law for a city employee to volunteer time within their own position. For example, Dial-Flomer is permitted to volunteer hours mowing lawns or otherwise, but not for tasks within the city clerk’s job.
Meanwhile, Ewing and Turk advocated further. At the Farmington City Council meeting Feb. 18, Dugan offered an agreement to compensate Dial-Flomer by paying her a third of the hours, while administering another third in comp time and another third as donated hours.
The meeting had too few council members present for a quorum, so the matter was tabled until Monday night.
This time the matter came up in the agenda three-quarters into the meeting, which Ewing and Turk were not present for.
“It started out when Jenna was here,” said Dugan, sitting in the mayor’s spot, next to Dial-Flomer and near United States, State of Washington and Farmington city flags.
He indicated that Jenna McDonald, the previous city clerk, had minimal time to train Dial-Flomer.
“The overlapping time between Barb and Jenna was four hours,” said Dugan.
The new clerk-treasurer started her job while Laura Hokenson was still mayor. Eventually, after Dugan took office, Dial-Flomer started to write down the extra hours she was donating.
“I have no question at all that the hours are legitimate,” said the mayor at Monday’s council meeting, adding that when someone is under the assumption they are not getting paid for something, they get the work done and go home.
“I was fat, dumb and happy, I signed a volunteer agreement,” said Dial-Flomer, pointing out that the issue was not brought up by her.
Councilman Dave Baker made a comment regarding the previous hours she worked before anything was written down.
“Sounds like there are more hours there,” he said.
Mayor Dugan responded saying they were not going to get into that since the hours were not recorded.
Dugan then reviewed the situation further, saying that two meetings ago he and the council talked about paying Dial-Flomer a bonus. He then went over the compromise-in-thirds he offered at the last meeting.
The council listened.
Dugan added that the average clerk of a town that size has two weeks’ worth of vacation, and Dial-Flomer has no benefits whatsoever.
He said the town had the money to pay her.
“We have saved $1,200 on the lawnmower purchase, we’re not going ahead with the $1,500 computer upgrade, and there are 53 less maintenance hours (so far this year),” Dugan said.
“The law says we need to pay her, let’s make a motion,” said Councilman Baker.
Then Councilman Todd Lobdell made a motion, it was seconded by Baker and passed unanimously.
Dial-Flomer will receive $2,437.87 in gross wages.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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