The council quickly approved the raises, but listened more reluctantly to City Clerk-Treasurer Kerry White's report on an Internal Revenue Service rule that said a portion of employee's cell phone use must be taxed.
The IRS, he said, taxes through payroll deductions on the assumption that a city-issued cell phone would sometimes be used for personal calls. The amount of the tax would depend on where the employee fits in the IRS tax tables, he said.
White said the city could start the deductions in January 2007, “or we can face IRS penalties going back to the time the cell phones were first issued.”
The council approved the deductions.
It also approved a zone change, first reading of two, that would change the designation on 17.5 acres of the Lee property near the intersection of 1214 and the Byway.
After the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved, the designation would change from agricultural to commercial. The change requires one more reading at the council's first meeting in January.
And council members will take their oaths of office at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 27 at City Hall.
City Attorney Kenneth Smart reported that he and White had traveled to Louisville to give Councilman Steve Dennison his oath of office.
Smart said Dennison is recovering from complications of diabetes and has been hospitalized for 30 days, “but he is improving, looks well, and hopes to be back for the January council meetings.”
The council presented a departing gift and a buffet for departing Councilman Leon Shaw, who lost his council seat by 10 votes in November.
Shaw said he had “enjoyed the work, learned a lot and will miss not being around to see some of the projects we've worked on finished.”
One new project is the North Leitchfield Hudson Fire Station, and the County Firemen's Association presented a plaque to the city to hang in the new station.
The plaque recognizes Hudson's work as an ombudsman among all the fire departments in the county, “something he did very well,” said current County Coordinator Bob Williams, East Grayson County Fire Department.
In other action, the council:
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