UPDATED TO REFLECT NEW REIMBURSEMENT AMOUNT
The Luther Town Board Tuesday night gave Police Chief Marcus Thurman a raise effective immediately, promised him overtime for work this month, and allowed him to use vacation days to pay the Town back over a mistake last year in which he was given a raise without board approval.
The Chief’s new annual salary will be $47,475 as of December 13, 2016.
The board met behind closed doors in executive session to discuss Chief Thurman’s employment. There was no additional comment in open session. But after the meeting, Town Attorney Ray Vincent said he advised the board they could allow Thurman to use accrued leave to satisfy his debt to the Town, even though the previous town attorney did not. UPDATE: The debt amounts to about $2,800.*( *An earlier version of the story reflected Mr. Vincent’s estimation that Chief Thurman owed $8,000. However, Trustee Andy McDaniel said the amount is $2,842.47, after checking with the Town office the morning after the meeting.)
Vincent said he doubted the Department of Labor would have ruled in the town’s favor on the issue.
Thurman’s raise reflects new Department of Labor overtime guidelines. However, a federal judge put a hold on that ruling last month. Vincent said the board wanted to go ahead and approve the raise for Thurman, because he said they would be paying the chief a lot of overtime otherwise, based on his December hours. The board voted in November for Thurman to track his hours for 60 days for a decision in February, however, they took action after only about 30 days.
Yes votes on the items came from Mayor Cecilia Taft and Trustees Birlene Langley, Carolyn Lawson and Andy McDaniel.
Trustee Ron Henry voted no.
The Town spend $10,957.16 on payroll in the month of November for the police force that includes six officers.
The Police Activity Report for October 2016 shows a total of 166 calls.
Police activity breakdown:
Agency Assists – 16
Arrests – 1
Detox – 0
Alarm – 3
DOA – 0
A&B – 0
Domestics – 1
Rescue calls – 3
Accidents – 1
Misc. calls – 141
