Soap Lake changes city hall hours ordinance

SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake City Council voted Wednesday to approve a change in the city’s ordinances, switching City Hall’s public hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. indefinitely.

The ordinance change came after council members passed a motion at the Sept. 6 council meeting to adopt the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. public hours. City employees will still work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Council members Steve Wellein, Allen DuPuy and Karen Woodhouse voted against the initial motion, according to the Sept. 6 meeting minutes. Wellein, DuPuy and Woodhouse also voted against the subsequent ordinance change at the Sept. 20 meeting.

Mayor Michelle Agliano and Finance Director Ruth Wade said that limiting the public hours is meant to allow city staff to do daily tasks, paperwork and catch up on other business without being interrupted by service requests from the public.

“I think we should have a sunset (clause) on this of four months or six months, for a reassessment,” said Wellein.

DuPuy also expressed his issues with the public hours change and ordinance change.

“I'm having a little bit of trouble with accepting something like this when we have all of the citizens that we represent and we have to service,” said DuPuy. “What I've heard consistently from staff at meetings and things is that the mornings, like that eight to nine, are pretty quiet. So I would be okay with giving them that hour in the morning without public at the window.”

DuPuy asked why they couldn’t adopt the hours as a temporary change like the council did when they adjusted the hours to train new city staff, in order to see if the new 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours work.

“Why don't we continue to allow that without having to change our ordinance? Let's leave our ordinance the way it is (and) try this, “said DuPuy. “It's got to have a sunset time. It's got to go for a period of time.”

Soap Lake Finance Director Ruth Wade said that the hour from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. is not quiet.

“At eight o'clock the phones are ringing, (at) nine o'clock the phones are ringing,” said Wade. “But there are a couple of days once in a while that It's not ringing at all, and they're (city staff) still getting caught up. There's a lot to do with utility billing.”

DuPuy said one extra hour in the morning should be sufficient for the employee’s needs.

“Now we want to take more time away from the citizens that need our help at city hall. I just have a problem with that,” said DuPuy.

Wellein also had another issue with the public hours changes.

“I think four o'clock is too soon. People work a nine-to-five. How are they going to get in here? … I don't think it's right,” he said.

Council member Fred Slipper said that he supported the ordinance and that they needed to stay consistent with the public hours.

“The office being open nine o'clock to four o'clock, that, I believe, is sufficient for the public to get there and do their business, and I don't think we need to micromanage what goes on the hour before and the hour after,” said Slipper. “We should have confidence in our city staff that they will make good use of that time, and if there's reason to believe otherwise, then let's bring that up at some point in the future when we have something substantive to refer to.”

Council member Kayleen Bryson voted to pass the hours change and subsequent ordinance change.

“I'm wanting to support what they need,” she said. “But this is significant and I would clearly expect then that we don't have issues. We don't have overtime, we get the budget where it needs to be so we can work on it. We've been talking about getting caught up for a year, and we haven’t gotten caught up, so I want to make sure that this happens.”

Wade then addressed Bryson’s comments on the budget.

“I'm going to have numbers for Michelle at the end of this month,” she said. “We're going to be as good as we're going to be for now, and if things come up we'll get them corrected. We still have time. But she will know where we're at this year.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.