The Pell City Council agreed on Monday to allow Mayor Bill Hereford to negotiate a contract with SouthWest Water Company of Pelham to manage its water department.

There were four companies vying for the city’s business and in a 4-2 vote, the council chose SouthWest over Clearwater Solutions.

A roll call vote was called after Councilman Donnie Todd suggested the city align itself with Clearwater, who had the lowest bid of $679,500 annual cost to the city. But there were not enough votes to secure allowing the mayor to negotiate with that company.

Council members James McGowan, Dot Wood and Greg Gossett voted against Clearwater, while Todd, Councilman Donnie Guinn and Mayor Hereford voted in favor of that deal.

SouthWest won out in a 4-2 roll call vote cast after Councilwoman Dot Wood suggested that company with Donnie Guinn seconding the motion. Gossett and McGowan casted the “no” votes on SouthWest.

McGowan backed up his “no” vote by saying that he believes that the city is “headed in the wrong direction” and added that there were too many things that could go wrong in hiring a private company to handle the city’s water department. “I did look at this with an open mind,” McGowan told those gathered in the chamber hall Monday. But added that the company would be using the city’s equipment and anything that needs to be purchased would be bought by Pell City.

Councilman Gossett said that the mayor “hasn’t compared apples to apples with companies” that submitted bids. He said he was against the measures put forth Monday because “no one has told anyone exactly what they’d be doing… I don’t know how people could vote on something without strict guidelines of who will be doing what.”

In another tightly debated issue Monday, the council voted not to give city employees a Christmas bonus, something that hasn’t been done in 25 years.

Mayor Hereford made the case that as long as citizens are struggling in the current economic conditions that he was against giving out bonuses. He cited that the city’s coffers are getting lower as years go by and said that since 2007 revenues have been declining drastically.

Hereford cited that in 2007 there were $2.2 million dollars in the coffers at this time of the year. In 2008 there was $2 million at this time and now that has dropped to $1.9 million and by next year it is projected to be somewhere around $1.65 million.

Councilman McGowan, who put forth a measure to give full-time employees a $200 bonus and part-time employees a $100 bonus, said that the city had the money to do so because several positions were currently vacated and that money could be used from the city’s budget.

Documents provided at the council meeting showed that it would cost around $30,000 to pay for the Christmas bonuses.

Mayor Hereford cited the numbers again, “We are steadily going downhill. October was a good month, but it was half-a-million dollars below last year. Thankfully Pell City hasn’t had to lay off people.”

Councilman Guinn said, “At this time last year, I was the only person who voted against this.” He cited that a bonus not given “has nothing to do with our employees. But doing so would show a great lack of concern for the times we’re in.”

Councilwoman Wood echoed Guinn’s statement.

Councilman Gossett, who seconded McGowan’s motion, said that if the city had the money to pay for the Avondale Mills property, then why didn’t it have funds to give bonuses.

Councilman McGowan said that many employees depend on the bonuses each year.

The motion failed to pass with Mayor Hereford, and council members Todd, Wood and Donnie Guinn voting against the bonus.