T-L Photo/KAILEY CARPINO Bellaire Mayor Edward Marling, left, and Marla Krupnik, fiscal officer, discuss making changes to the village employee handbook.

BELLAIRE — Bellaire Village Council is considering updating the village employee handbook and enforcing stricter guidelines for village workers and law enforcement.

Mike Doyle, councilman at large, started the conversation at the Nov. 2 meeting by saying that he has seen unattended village vehicles running near the village building.

“They’re not supposed to,” Mayor Edward Marling said.

Marling noted that some employees leave their vehicles running for a few minutes to pick something up from the municipal building.

He said he will instruct the employees to shut off their vehicles while they are unattended.

Doyle said the village needs an official policy with repercussions if employees refuse to follow the policy.

“We could start giving them time off if they don’t want to shut them off,” Marling said.

Councilwoman Janet Richardson said the policy must be official.

“They have to be properly notified that this is our policy, and it has to be in writing. Then you have something if the infraction is there to go on. It can’t just be hearsay,” she said.

Marling said no written policy exists, but he will work to get one written up.

Clerk Mary Haglioizou said she is working to create a new employee handbook that will have all of the employee policies in writing. She said that she is doing the project in-house, but she is using other handbooks as examples to give her guidance.

“I have the employee handbook, I have been trying to update it as I go. In addition to everything else that I do, it is not my top priority most of the time, but I am trying to get it done for you,” Haglioizou said.

She said she will try to get the handbook completed by the middle of December.

Once it is completed, all village employees will have to sign a form stating that they have read the handbook and agree to follow its policies.

Police Chief J.J. Watson said the police department is in a similar situation. Watson is working with Lexipol, a company based in Texas, to create an official policies and procedures handbook for the police department.

Watson said a representative from Lexipol estimated that the project will cost $3,547.30 a year, based on the number of officers in the department.

“I wish Mr. Stecker was here so he can talk a little bit more about why we need policies and procedures, but he is not here,” Watson said.

Paul Stecker serves as the solicitor for the village.

“I’m so shocked to hear that our police department doesn’t even have bonafide policies, but we’re getting there,” Richardson said.

“We will write every policy and procedure for the police department. Every policy and procedure that every officer will have, they have to acknowledge that they will see that and they will read off on it and they have to sign off on it,” Watson said.

Doyle made the motion that council should go forward with the handbook for the police department.

“We have the money to do that, so what are we waiting for? If they’ve got policy ready to roll and we have the money, why are we waiting?” he said.

All members of council voted in favor of the motion.

In other news, Watson also said the police department purchased a new radar unit for one of the police cars. He explained that the radar unit will be used to monitor traffic and catch speeders.

“We can’t run radar and enforce speeding violations if we do not have a radar unit,” he said.

Watson said the unit cost about $1,200, and he does not know the cost of the installation. He said it will be installed on Dec. 7 by BearCom in Wheeling. He said that BearCom previously installed radios and other technology in the patrol vehicles.

After the unit is installed, he said, all three patrol vehicles will be equipped with radar.

Marla Krupnik, fiscal officer, said that the village recently received a $40,000 grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. She said the majority of the funding will support the water plant.

Elizabeth Dugmore, councilwoman at large, was absent from the meeting.