City to give Christmas bonuses to all employees

City will spend $400k to reward employees for hard work

By DON WILBURN

donaldfwilburn@gmail.com

It appears that it was a good year for the city and it will be passing along that good fortune in the form of a little Christmas cheer as the West Memphis city council and Budget Committee has recently approved one thousand dollar Christmas bonuses for all city employees. While there was a bit of discussion beforehand on the amount to be distributed as some thought it unfair that employees still on 90 day probation had simply not “put in the time” and shouldn’t receive anything and others who had been with the city less than a year should receive a lesser amount it was city councilwoman Loraine Mohammed’s opinion that all employees should receive the same amount.

Her reasons were twofold in that first of all it was a “gift” and that even with her own children, despite their age (or time they had “put in”) they should receive the same thing “across the board” and that she also felt that if any employee was qualified enough to work for the city then they were qualified to receive the full amount.

Opposing viewpoints were that this was actually unfair that someone who had been with the city less than 90 days and someone who had worked for the city for 35 years should not receive the same bonus. In the end, the city council and budget committee came to agree with

See BONUSES, page A3 BONUSES

From page A1

Mohammed and is expected to payout in total just less than 400 thousand dollars to employees.

The city of West Memphis is currently hiring for a number of positions across all departments.