New Richmond council members recently voted against giving employees a one-time raise before the holidays, however, at their meeting Dec. 13, a motion was made again, and this time it passed.

Employees will be receiving a $750 bonus if they are full-time and a minimum of $75 if they are part-time, based upon the number of hours they work.

The bonus dropped slightly this time around. The first time the proposed bonus was $1,000 for full-time employees and a minimum of $100 for part-time employees.

Councilman Nick Wolf brought the idea back up at the end of the Dec. 13 council meeting, and said that while he doesn’t like to re-visit issues that have been voted on, he was really bothered by council’s decision not to reward employees for their hard work.

“I had an employee come in and thank me for voting for the bonus, because he could have really used it,” Wolf said. “Someone else mentioned morale has gone down since council voted.”

Wolf was one of three councilmen to vote for the raise. Rich Matthews and Jack Conners also voted yes, while Vinnie Cochran, Richard Hilt and Gary Skeene voted no. Mayor Ramona Carr broke the tie by voting no.

This time around, council was still conflicted about whether to give a bonus or save the money.

“I want to say, all who voted no; I defend you totally,” Wolf said. “But I come back to the idea that nothing is more important than the employees and the morale of the employees.”

Wolf said the previous decision had been bothering him since it was made, and he hoped everyone had a chance to think about the bonus, and that some councilmen may change their vote.

“I lost sleep that night,” Councilman Vinnie Cochran said about deciding to vote no. “It has affected all of us the same way.”

Cochran said he didn’t consider the small amount of money left over from 2011 as extra money, instead he said it should carry-over to 2012.

He said after meeting with the financial task force, the financial situation does not look good for the village in the future especially with the closing of Beckjord Station in the next few years.

Rich Matthews, who made the original motion for a bonus, said despite this, he didn’t see any point in the near future where the village would have to lay people off.

“It’s much more important to think about the employees than how we are going to get by the next year,” Matthews said.

However, he did suggest lowering the bonus, and the motion was amended to $750 for full-time employees and $75 minimum for part-time employees.

Despite the lower numbers. Councilman Rick Hilt also stood his ground. Especially, he said, because of his knowledge about the village’s finances.

“These are real numbers,” he told council members. “I still think we should be frugal.”

Mayor Ramona Carr said she hates that the employee morale has gone down because of the last decision. She also said it was the first time she has ever had to break a tie as mayor.

“But this day and time, people are lucky to have a job,” Mayor Carr said.

Gary Skeene remained quiet about the issue and when it came down to a vote, he decided this time to vote yes for employees to receive the bonus.

Cochran and Hilt voted no, while Skeene, Conners, Matthews and Wolf voted yes to the raise.

Matthews said employees will receive the bonus before the holidays.