- Nephi City Council adopts the Zip Code as the new designation for employment
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NOTE THE ZIP CODE • The Nephi City Council has passed a policy that only full-time employees who get their mail at 84648 can be employed by the city. Above the Nephi City Post Office can be a busy place most mornings but Charlene Nielsen, center, should be glad she works for the Juab School District since she is a resident of Mona
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
It took another debate of the best way to handle the need to have employees of the city live near enough to respond quickly to emergencies but, in the end, it was decided to adopt a resolution amending the city’s personnel policy.
One council member, Justin Seely, voted against the proposed amendment because it was not quite broad enough—he would have liked the communities of Mona and Levan included within the boundaries set for employment.
“I still like the flexibility we talked about in expanding the employment area to include Mona and Levan,” said Seely.
However, it was a suggestion by council member Brent Bowles which finally won the day.
“I think, because of the size of the city, we should restrict the employment range to the Zip Code of 84648,” said Bowles.
The city heard from one employee a few weeks ago when they had proposed changing the policy to restrict all full-time employees to living inside the city limits proper.
Bowles said the 84648 Zip Code designation would mean that all employees could still respond to a need within approximately 10 minutes of being called. It would also mean, he said, that police officers, emergency medical technicians and gas, water and electric department employees would all be able to respond quickly if needed.
“When you are waiting for help, such as an emergency crew response, a couple of minutes could be a heck of a long time,” said Robert Painter, council member. “Still, I favor the Zip Code boundary. That way if an employee wants to live on a farm or have a bit of acreage, that would be fine.”
In the end, Robert Painter made the motion to adopt the Zip Code as the new designation for employment.
Mayor Mark Jones said that, as the council had mulled over the need for a quick response time, there had been a lot of discussion.
“We need to ask: What is our real intent, our real purpose and the outcome that we want?” said Jones.
The one question he had with the way the policy calling for employees to live inside the city was worded, said Bowles, was the wording of “immediate area.” That could mean different things to different people.
The policy would also allow the council to determine where employees could live, if outside the city limits, on a case by case basis.
“Isn’t the response time to emergencies our objective?” asked Kent Park, council member.
That was one of the objectives, said Jones.
“Might there be other objectives?” he asked.
The Zip Code designation was quite broad, said Blair Painter, city recorder. He reminded the council that he did not have a vote but wondered if the members of the council knew just how broad that area was. For example, he said, Camperworld, in Salt Creek Canyon, and Moroni Feed, south of Nephi, were both included in the 84648 Zip.
On the north, the Zip designation of 84648 went nearly to Burraston Ponds.
Seely said he thought that including the communities of Mona and Levan in the allowed employment area was a good idea. Those neighboring communities still shared with Nephi a “sense of community,” or an attachment to Nephi.
“I agree, as Robert Painter said, that when you are in an emergency situation, two of three minutes can seem like a long time,” said Seely.
He said that when Dr. Mark Oveson, who lives in Salt Creek Canyon, was on call at the hospital, some accommodations were made so that his response time could be minimal.
Perhaps, Blair Painter said, the council should just stay with the old policy if they were not going to make significant changes.
Denton Hatch, council attorney, said that the wording of the old policy did allow some flexibility but could also be more specific.
“I have never seen a Zip Code used but I don’t know why (that has not been used),” he said.
Hatch said he had talked with city attorneys at Salem, Payson, Spanish Fork, and had spoken to David Church, attorney for the League of Cities and Towns. They had all indicated they liked a personnel policy concerning employment area which had a lot of flexibility.
The city has approximately 10 police officers, said Bowles. Some restrictions need to be applied because they couldn’t all commute from, for example, Logan.
Randy McKnight, city administrator, said that the policy would apply only to full-time employees. Those who were part time would not be affected.
Current employees who live outside the immediate boundaries of the city have been granted permission to do so in an informal, rather than a formal manner. If those employees were not “grandfathered” in and some wording was changed, then they would have to receive that permission or be in violation.
The council was also asked what a “reasonable response” time might be.
That would depend on the job, said Jones.
“A reasonable response would be different depending on whether the employee was needed to save a life or to fix a leak,” he said.
At some point, said Don Ball, resident, the city may have to consider a full-time fire department and then the fire crew would be at the station house and certain members would be on-call and would have an immediate response time.
That time was not yet, however, because the fire department is not run by the city but by a special service district which encompasses all of the cities in the county.
The council had two options, to stick with the old policy and some ambiguity, or to adopt a new policy. A third option would be adopting the new policy with the wording change in using as a designation of the employee hiring area the Zip Code of 84648.
The policy will become effective upon publication.
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