Emporia City Commissioners received their first report from the city’s new homelessness task force during their regular meetings Wednesday.
The task force was formed back in January to review the city’s policies regarding the local homeless population, including an ordinance on illegal camping within the city limits. Task force member Mickey Edwards says when it comes to addressing the topic of homelessness locally, the ordinance itself is not enough, especially in its current format.
Edwards says outreach and an establishment of trust with unhoused residents will be key components to thoroughly addressing the matter.
Edwards made several recommendations to commissioners as part of the report including the potential establishment of a city position that focuses solely on interaction and providing resources to unhoused residents.
Edwards adds the community has several non-profit agencies that offer services to segments of the homeless population, however, there is no one entity that addresses the needs of all segments. Following the report, commissioners agreed to continue the city’s unlawful camping ordinance through July 8 during which time the city’s task force will continue to meet and work to develop a more “comprehensive policy” according to Edwards.
In other business Wednesday afternoon, commissioners reviewed the city’s wage compensation study. The overall goal of the study is to help make city wages more competitive and therefore help attract and retain quality employees.
The proposed plan is to invest approximately $1.2 million to increase pay scales for all departments and handle compression adjustments. $800,000 of the proposed $1.2 million will be used to increase base pay for all departments with an additional $400,000 being used to address wage compression.
According to City Manager Trey Cocking wage compression deals with the difference in pay between new hires and longtime employees. This means the more compression in wages, the less difference there is in pay.
Cocking says it is important to have as little wage compression as possible so there is more incentive for workers at all levels.
Commissioners are planning to gain more input from department heads on the compression topic in the coming months with more discussions planned for the commission’s next meeting in May.
During the commission’s regular action meeting earlier in the day, commissioners approved an amendment to its development agreement with Emporia Land Development, LLC regarding CID sales tax. The city approved the original agreement back in 2016 and in the summer of 2022, the developer filed a petition for an additional 1 percent CID tax which required the original agreement to be amended.
Approval was also given to a new 50-year land lease with the United States Government for the US Army Reserve Center at 1412 E. 6th Ave. Commissioners also approved the appointment of Eric Porter Community Housing/Land Bank Board and re-appointed Daphne Mertens to the Natural Resources Advisory Board.
The Emporia City Commission will next convene on Wednesday, May 3 at 11 am inside of the Municipal Courtroom at White Auditorium.
