Seymour Clerk-Treasurer Darrin Boas has requested city council add an employee to his office to handle a workload that has increased over the past decade.

The council voted 7-0 during a meeting Monday night to amend the city’s current salary ordinance to add a third office clerk to process sewer bill and payment collections.

“This will provide an increase in the budget to cover the salary for this person,” said Councilman Jerry Hackney, chairman of the finance committee.

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The position will be funded from sanitation revenue.

Hackney requested the board suspend its rules and approve the request on second reading at the same meeting, but not all council members felt comfortable taking that action. Councilmen Bret Cunningham and Chad Hubbard cast the dissenting votes to force the matter to a second reading March 23.

Boas said the volume of water consumption in the city has increased, along with the addition of stormwater charges, but sewer revenue decreased by 3.55% or $191,634 last year due to lack of followup on sewer liens, new sewer tap fees and rentals.

“The situation we have is the city has continued to grow,” he said. “What’s happening is these things aren’t getting followed up on in a timely manner because of lack of manpower.”

The new position would pay an annual salary of $32,000, but Boas said by hiring a third person, the office can recover some of the more than $190,000 in lost sewer revenue.

Boas also said stormwater rates need to be recalculated in the city as they have not been adjusted since being implemented five years ago.

“Any time anybody has added pavement, any time anybody has added a roof anywhere, it has affected the amount of stormwater runoff, and that has not been adjusted,” he said.

Boas said he was told by the sewer department and the city’s financial advisers that something needs to be done to fix the problem.

“We’ve continued to go about business the same way in the past 10 years with no additional help and the continued growth and the continued workload that has been put on the ladies in the office,” he said.