City Beat: Council approves east-side annexation request

Springfield City Council voted 7-2 to approve a voluntary annexation request for five acres at Sunshine Street and Blackman Road. The owner, Christian Church of Mid-America Inc., also has a request in the works to rezone the residential property for general retail use.

Ken Schwab, commercial broker with Wilhoit Properties, is under contract with the church group to personally buy the property and develop a 33,000-square-foot shopping center and bank site.

Council members Cindy Rushefsky and Doug Burlison voted against the annexation. Rushefsky said any sales tax boost generated on the property would not outweigh the additional strain of providing city services.

“The annexation itself doesn’t present any real advantages for the city,” she said at the meeting. Rushefsky noted that more than 1,100 acres have been added to the city since the beginning of 2005, “with certainly the potential need for additional services in those areas, at a time when we are being pressed to fulfill the needs of the community that we already have.”

She also expressed concern that the proposed rezoning for the property is opposed by many of its neighbors; the tract is surrounded on three sides by single-family homes.

Councilwoman Mary Collette, however, voted for the annexation because, she said, council cannot protect the property if it’s not part of the city.

Mayor Tom Carlson echoed those sentiments. “The developer is taking its own risk in bringing (this annexation) forward,” he said. “We may or may not rezone the property, and I feel no obligation whatsoever other than to give it full consideration later on when the zoning matter comes before us.” Council is expected to consider the rezoning Dec. 17.

Spending a $1.5M settlement

Council also considered how to spend about $1.5 million it received in a September settlement with Sprint Nextel Corp. over unpaid back taxes.

The recommendation includes $250,000 for debt service on city projects, mostly toward the $2.7 million loan for the crime lab; an additional $500,000 contribution to the police/fire pension fund; and nearly $300,000 to fund a 1 percent across-the-board pay raise for city employees.

The recommendation that caused concern, however, is $500,000 set aside to pay for a potential city liability resulting from a statewide lawsuit over the minimum wage law passed in 2006.

The new law requires employers to pay overtime to anyone working more than 40 hours a week; Springfield firefighters, like those in several other cities, don’t get paid overtime until they work 54 hours in a week because of overtime shifts required by the job.

If the courts rule against the cities, Springfield could be forced to pay $1.2 million in back pay to its firefighters who have logged overtime hours.

Tony Kelley, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 152, applauded the city’s efforts to use some of the money for pay raises and pension funding, but he asked the city to consider a collective bargaining agreement with the firefighters regarding the 54-hour standard.

City Manager Bob Cumley, however, said he didn’t think the firefighters could legally bargain for a 54-hour week because of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires overtime be paid for wage-earning employees working more than 40 hours in a week.

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