JOHN COFFELTEditor

New Manchester Finance Director Anthony Burrows cautioned the members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen at his first Finance Committee meeting on May 21 that the city’s high employee turnover was a problem.

“A little over 25% of all our employees are less than one year is a high number,” Burrows said. “I know the environment out there is difficult. Turnover is very expensive. There is a lot of costs associated with turnover and there is a knowledge drain associated with high turnover.”

He advised the committee of a need to focus on retention of the people the city currently has . He outlined four areas of improvement that included salary, insurance, cost of living increases and longevity pay as areas that could aid in employee retention.

Addressing the cost of living increases, Burrows said that inflation is at its highest in 44 years.

“If our employees do not have some sort of cost of living increase to help offset the inflation, they are going backwards every year. Eventually, no matter how good an employee they are, how loyal they are… they are going to look elsewhere,” he said.

The cost of living increase he suggested looking at would be in addition to the updated salary rates.

Alderman Joey Hobbs suggested that the city should reverse its usual practice of cutting the employee pay side of things and instead look at making cuts to department purchases.

“We can’t continue year after year say, we have no extra money and make the employee pay for that,” he said.

He called an eye opener that an outsider come onboard and immediately recognize turnover as a problem.

Vice Mayor Mark Messick called pay and benefits a big deal.

“I think we’ve had a pretty good increase in revenue,” Messick said. “I think we’re OK. I think we can do everything we want to do.”

Messick said that the city needs to spend its excesses on things that need to be fix rather than holding on to it.

Alderman Donny Parsley cautioned, “We’ve got to see the numbers to see if we are on the right track or the wrong track.”

The city is anticipating the final report from a salary study commissioned months ago.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.