Council President George Tyros Issues February Review – FULL COVERAGE
Gardner City Council President George Tyros issued his February 2026 review “From the President’s Desk” on February 26, 2026 Complete text on PDF, CLICK HERE. The Chair Man and the Chair Lady have a “Deep Dive” talking about it. Listen on any device, CLICK PLAY.
This Video summarizes the update:
From City Council President George Tyros – FULL TEXT in PDF, CLICK HERE.
“Starting last June, the Council has been debating and working to reform the compensation package for certain City employees, mostly department heads and some non-union staff. The discussion around these reforms have gone on for many years, but it has been almost 20 years since a reform has passed. That process continued with two items in February. First, the Mayor reported on the implementation of the new ordinance passed by the Council in December. That report outlined the process so far, and made notes on changes the Mayor was suggesting to correct for ongoing issues or further reforms. The Mayor also submitted another batch of employees to be added to the compensation ordinance. They follow the same salary adjustment, and step scale as the previous ones. This item is currently under review by the Finance Committee.
A New Union: The Council has been able to infer from the salary ordinance changes submitted by the Mayor and other communications that some employees originally part of that group have taken steps to unionize. However, the Council has not been officially informed of these actions, the City ’s response thus far, or the situation moving forward. To make sure the Council is kept in the loop going forward, I appointed Councillor Mack to service as liaison on this issue. Councillor Mack is the most experienced with union matters and where it appears that an employee elected by the Council is part of this new union, it is important that we engage in this process.”
Other items detailed by the Council President include the unanimous election of Karen Butler as City Auditor, the $10,000 gift by DPW to the Gardner CAC which did not follow proper approval procedure, the discrepancy in the amount the Mayor reported was needed for making a repayment to the Stabilization Fund, $500,000 rather than $100,975. In addition, $19,000 of the appropriation authorized for the Salt Shed was spent on repairs for two of the City’s salt trucks and the Council is looking in to whether that was legal. Tyros noted updates in procedure for appointments after paperwork errors prevented action on several appointments already this year.
