The Bourbon Board of Aldermen on May 19 discussed allowing officers to take a vehicle home and raising wages.

Mayor Sky Huddleston asked Police Chief Scott Zwetow about vacancies for officer positions.

“Do we still have open positions for officers?” asked Huddleston.

Zwetow said there is one full-time and one part-time position available.

“So I’ve been doing some research, this is just my opinion, it seems like we’re not very competitive if we want to fill these positions,” said Huddleston.

Huddleston shared why letting cops take home cars would be a good investment for the city.

“One of the things I heard from people is that we don’t let cops have a take-home car,” said Huddleston. “The cost of vehicle ownership is more expensive now than ever for reasons that I could talk about for hours. It seems to me like a take-home car is not a terrible idea, (it’s) just a suggestion.”

Alderman Margie Brine said that she has not heard this problem arise.

Alderman Ward 1 James Naquin asked Zwetow if letting officers take home a car would enhance their work performance.

“Wouldn’t it make it easier for them (officers) to respond if they’re needed?” asked Naquin.

Zwetow said officers would be able to respond faster, but take-home vehicles would be more of an incentive because the city pays for the upkeep on the vehicles. Brine agreed with Zwetow.

Zwetow said if the take-home vehicle incentive was approved, they’d have to put a mileage cap on the vehicles. 

Alderman Tim Davis asked Huddleston if he had compared salaries to other places in the area.

“Yeah, I saw it. It’s one of the lowest in the area,” said Huddleston.

Zwetow said the salary for officers in Bourbon is one of the lowest in the county.

“I was gonna say we are definitely the lowest,” said Brine.

Davis suggested instead of trying to give officers the take-home incentive, the city raise wages for officers.

“I figured they would want to raise the pay instead of just driving a car home,” said Davis.

“Which option would provide the most value for the city and the officer?” asked Huddleston.

Davis said the first thing that officers look at for a job is pay, and then they look at incentives.

“If anybody is hiring, they (officers) look at surrounding areas to see if their pay matches or if their pay is lower, we should match our pay to get somewhere closest (to surrounding areas), so we can get people here and want to stay,” said Davis.

Naquin said it would be hard for the city to compete with what a Sullivan officer makes.

“Oh! We can’t compete with Sullivan,” said Davis.

Naquin said it would be hard for the city to compete with what a Cuba officer makes and suggested an incentive to help make up the difference.

“I think a raise is great too, but I don’t think we can compete with the local communities, but you can definitely offer them something,” said Naquin.

Huddleston shared why a take-home car would be a good incentive for officers.

“The reason why a take-home car is an incentive is that, as an engineer, one of them is tribology,” said Huddleston. “We can effectively eliminate one of the biggest downsides of a take-home car, which is high mileage on the engines, by having bypass filters installed. All of a sudden, it increases the dry turning longevity by a literal factor of a thousand percent.”

Floodplain Manager Mark McEuen asked what the purpose of vehicles sitting out in the middle of town, not providing service, was.

“I think they could respond quicker if they were needed,” said McEuen about letting officers have a take-home car.

Naquin said near his residence on Johnson Street, two police officers live across the street and a patrolman lives down the road. He said their presence on that street makes people more cautious when driving the street because of the police presence.

Brine said letting officers take a car home is a lot of mileage to put on the vehicles.

Two officers live in Rolla and one lives in St. Clair

“To me it’s not a whole lot of an incentive,” said Brine. “I’d be more inclined to look at pay raises.”

Brine recommended Zwetow looked into wages and bring them to the board to see what they could do about it.

In other business, the board with a 3-0 vote approved Resolution No. 526, stating the city’s intent to seek funding through the community development block grant program and authorizing the mayor to attempt to secure fundings.

The next board meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16, at City Hall.