93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Columbia’s city manager feels like he’s accomplished his goal of building a better relationship with city employees. City manager De’Carlon Seewood tells 939 the Eagle’s “Randy Tobler show” that the approximately 1,500 city employees feel valued.
“Your biggest ambassador to get people to join your organization is your employees. And if you build that atmosphere with them, hopefully they’re relying it to their friends and you’re getting more people to come on board,” Mr. Seewood tells listeners.
One of Mr. Seewood’s priorities has been city employee pay and retention. The Columbia city council voted last summer to approve a three percent across-the-board pay raise for permanent city employees, and approved an additional four percent raise in the fall. The council also approved a $1,500 one-time retention payment to permanent employees who’ve been with the city since March 2020.
Meantime, Mr. Seewood says the city has a strong plan to implement the roll cart trash collection system. The city council voted unanimously 7-0 last week to approve the plan.
“It’s going to take us a year to get it implemented. So there’s always time to make some adjustments, some movement. We still have to figure out what we’re going to do about recycling and about yard waste. Under the current plan, that doesn’t change. But in the future we may look at making some changes to that as well,” says Seewood.
Under the ordinance that’s been approved, all residential curbside customers would receive a trash roll cart. You can choose a 35-gallon, 65-gallon or 95-gallon cart. The 35-gallon cart will cost $12.87 per month, while the 65-gallon cart will be $17.37 a month. The 95-gallon cart would be $22.50 per month.
Click here to listen to Randy Tobler’s full interview with Mr. Seewood, from March 22, 2023.
