BENSON -- The Benson City Council will hold a special meeting today to discuss eliminating an employment position in the city-run wastewater treatment plant.
During Monday's regular meeting, the City Council heard an appeal from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees regarding Benson's elimination of a treatment plant position in the city's water/wastewater-testing laboratory. In early April, the council closed Benson's certified water/wastewater-testing laboratory after state requirements from the Minnesota Department of Health made the city service "not very cost-effective anymore." Like other small cities, Benson contracted out its municipal water/wastewater testing to another laboratory.
After the laboratory closing, the city also decided to eliminate the plant position that primarily did laboratory work, said City Administrator Rob Wolfington.
The AFSCME union is challenging the city's elimination of the employment.
"It had nothing to do with the employee's performance," Wolfington said in a Tuesday phone interview. "He was a 9-year, good employee. But the disagreement is over how we eliminated that position." Wolfington said the city's decision was about how many employees were actually needed to run the plant when "work has disappeared."
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The council will begin discussions about the situation at 5:30 p.m. today in the council chambers.
"If the council upholds my decision to eliminate that position, and the union wants to take it to the next step," Wolfington said, arbitration would be in the city's future.
According to a previous report, the city had run its water/wastewater-testing laboratory, which was located inside Benson's wastewater treatment plant, since the plant's construction in the early 1980s.
The state requirements that led to the lab's closing included the needs of having backup personnel, new equipment, additional testing, and more elaborate procedures within the lab.
The municipal water/ wastewater-testing laboratory closed by the city of Benson is not associated with Countryside Public Health's certified water lab which remains open.
