Two vastly different monthly fees ended with similar results in Thursday's Ironton City Council meeting.

In front of a crowd of city employees, many of whom were angry about proposals they believe could cost union jobs and others mad about not receiving overtime pay, Council debated a $15 monthly fee that would revert to a $10 version in year two and three before expiring and a $3 fee that would offset the nearly $150,000 lost when voters nixed the floodwall levy in November.

Neither plan got enough votes to be rushed through Thursday. They will be the focal point of future meetings as Council continues to argue over the need for revenue generating fees or cost-cutting to help the city solve its financial problems that include spending $500,000 more than it brings in and depleting by the end of the year the carryover that once neared $1 million.

"The problem in the city is revenue," said city employee Mike Kelley. "Why don't you fix that instead of always putting it on the workers and cutting services?"

Councilmen Jim Tordiff and Chuck O'Leary remain supporters of the mayor's proposal for a monthly fee, with Tordiff saying the city simply cannot cut any more.

"Cutting the budget on paper looks easy but that is not the reality of it," Tordiff said. "You have to be down here everyday to see how things work."

Councilmen Brent Pyles, Bob Isaac, Jesse Roberts, Richard Price and Bill Nenni have urged for cuts, but have supported some fees in one form or another.

Some of their ideas that have been kicked around include eliminating the sanitation department and contracting garbage service out, updating city ordinances involving police citations, eliminating the city pool, combining the city's code enforcement position with that of the fire inspector and combining the city dispatchers with 911.

"We have to stop looking at things as the way we have always done them and start to look at new ways to do things," Roberts said. "(The sanitation idea) may be a way of getting $2.50 per month and not putting it on the people but providing more services."

Mayor John Elam remained stoic throughout the debate but has adamantly urged council to give him the tools to move the city forward.

"Do I support the $15 fee? Yes. It basically makes up for last year when it did not pass," he said earlier in the week. "It is still the intent for this to be a temporary fee. This ordinance gives a time limit for Ironton to promote itself into self sustenance."

The local AFSCME employees were angry over the proposals to consider eliminating city dispatching and another that would contract garbage services out. Sandra Shonborn, staff representative for the Athens region of Ohio Council 8 AFSCME, said the union has bent over backwards to work with the city but does not feel that it is getting the owed respect.

"We will fight (these plans) until hell freezes over," she said to the council.

Roberts indicated that any plan could allow for positions to be shuffled but not cut. Pyles emphasized that it is simply a way to look at all the city's options.

"This is just an effort for us to see what is out there," he said. "To see what is available."

Council adopted the resolution to allow the mayor to look into the matter. Price, Tordiff and O'Leary voted against it.

For the second time in as many months, some city workers were angry because they worked overtime but did not get paid on time. The January rains caused unexpected expenses in the flood department that were not accounted for in the one-month temporary budget.

For city employees such as Todd Davis, that did not make things any better when last week's pay check was significantly less than he expected.

"We saved the city from flooding that was unreal Š," Davis said. "I myself don't work for free. I have a family to take care of."

Tordiff said the needed legislation must come from finance sooner to correct a problem that never should have happened again after a similar problem occurred in December with the police department.

"I think it is completely unacceptable," he said. "My hope is it never happens again. There needs to be better communication to get this info to us when we need it."

A budget adjustment to pay the employees was passed and a special payroll will be distributed today.