Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
City to pay $235K to BFD
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Firefighters owed thousands in back pay for overtime By Dominick Jean drjean@indiana.edu | @Domino_Jean
As the holiday season approaches and parents are buying their children gifts, Bloomington firefighters will be receiving long-awaited overtime payments. The Bloomington Fire Department is owed $235,000 in back pay for overtime over the past two years. The discrepancy was recently discovered after a lengthy audit and investigation by Fire Chief Jason Moore and the City of Bloomington, Attorney Michael Rouker said. Until recently, BFD was paid on a fluctuating work week system. The City of Bloomington turned to a fluctuating work week after the federal government advocated it as the best means to pay city employees like firefighters. However, that system is no longer usable. The fluctuating work week is designed so that the more hours worked, the less is paid per hour, and the fewer hours worked, the more is paid per hour. A firefighter who worked 60 hours in a week would be paid less per hour than one who worked 40 hours. “Many fire departments around the country were provided the same advice, and many began paying overtime accordingly,” Mary Catherine Carmichael, Bloomington communications director, said in a city press release Nov. 22. Rouker said a firefighter brought the issue to the attention of the city earlier this year because he had not received the correct amount of pay for his overtime. One hundred twelve firefighters were affected by the discrepancy and are owed different amounts ranging from approximately $80 to $2,000. Two firefighters were overpaid but will not have to pay anything back to Bloomington. Bloomington Police Capt. Steve Kellams said BPD experienced a similar, if less drastic, situation a few years ago when he was a lieutenant. Kellams said the overtime payment system is based off the Fair Labor Standards Act, and it can cause problems for people. “They have the ability to get overtime,” Kellams said. “But it’s really complicated.” Rouker agreed, calling the system complex. After a lengthy investigation, BFD said in a Nov. 22 news conference that a new payment system had been implemented and should prevent the same problems from arising in the future. Rouker confirmed this and said the new system is working well. “It’s functioning perfectly,” Rouker said. “We will be paying the correct amount moving forward.” The new system takes a 28-day period instead of a week-by-week approach to determine overtime. If a firefighter works enough hours to qualify for overtime in that 28-day period, then they receive back pay. While Bloomington is only liable to pay for the last two years of overtime, the problem may have happened years before and gone unnoticed until now. “It’s really tricky,” Rouker said. “It’s impossible to pinpoint a moment.” The fire department in Chicago experienced a similar problem with its fluctuating work week system recently, Rouker said. Compared to Bloomington, Chicago has a lot more firefighters and resources, but it was still blindsided by the changes. Rouker said the FLSA rules are developed through the court system and Bloomington is going to have to try and keep an eye on changing developments in the labor laws. “We’ll have to be diligent about auditing ourselves,” Rouker said.
JAMES BENEDICT | IDS
Sophomore forward OG Anunoby looks for an opening in the North Carolina defense during the Sweet 16 game March 25 in Philadelphia. IU lost 101-86 but plays North Carolina again at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday in Assembly Hall.
Out for revenge No. 13 Hoosiers take on No. 3 North Carolina tonight at home By Zain Pyarali | zpyarali@iu.edu | @ZainPyarali
IU men’s basketball knows what it’s in for Wednesday night when No. 3 North Carolina visits Bloomington for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge with tip-off at 9:15 p.m. The Tar Heels ended the Hoosiers’ season during the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament a year ago and have shown no signs of slowing down since then. North Carolina has steamrolled its competition to begin the 2016-17 campaign. It has won its first seven games by an average
of 27 points and won the Maui Invitational. IU’s upset overtime loss to Fort Wayne last Tuesday, which caused the team to drop 10 spots in the latest AP Top 25 poll to No. 13, adds even more fuel to the fire that was burning from last season’s Tournament loss. Sophomore forward Thomas Bryant said IU thinks about the loss to North Carolina but knows the Hoosiers have to stay poised when going up against the Tar Heels. “Carolina is obviously a tremendous program, and they’re having a great season,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “When you
watch them play on film, knowing how Roy coaches, knowing how they play and what type of season they had last year, they look even better to me.” Both the Hoosiers and Tar Heels have two of the most potent offensives in the country. IU averages more than 88 points a game, and North Carolina is scoring nearly 93 points per contest. North Carolina’s offensive efficiency is third in the country according to KenPom. SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 6
WIUX prepares to move into Franklin Hall By Emily Miles elmiles@iu.edu | @EmilyLenetta
Before the WIUX town hall meeting began Tuesday night in the Global and International Studies Building auditorium, board members sang and joked. They talked about 2014, the last time the station had to relocate. As station members filed in, the volume rose. The upcoming move, into an exclusive Media School space, will be different. When IU administration sent an email in October asking general manager Brian Berger how he felt about moving, he said he was shocked. Though the current house was always meant to be temporary, he did not yet know the University would make WIUX relocate in the summer. However, after a few meetings with Media School representatives, his fears dissipated. According to an initial design proposed by IT director Joey Miller, the new WIUX home would have two studios, a production room, a directors’ office and a living space only accessible by student IDs associated with the station. “I’m sure we’re going to plaster the place with posters,” Berger said. “I think the look and feel of WIUX is going to be similar.”
It will be smaller, but he said that will only bring people closer together. “It’s the people and our content that make WIUX what it is, regardless of if we’re in a house or we’re in a studio in the Media School,” public relations director Annie Skertic said. “It’s still going to be the organization it’s been for the past 50-plus years. That’s not changing.” IU student radio began more than 50 years ago in Wright Quad, as WQAD, and in Foster Quad, as WFQR. The largest carrier-current, student-owned, commercial campus radio station in the world was born in 1967, when the two stations merged. Its name was WIUS, and it resided in what is now the Mathers Museum. Arson destroyed that home in October 1972, and it operated in the mean time from spare studios in IU Radio and Television Service and in the old Wright Quad facilities. The student radio station settled just two blocks from the old WIUS house on Eighth Street during spring break 1973. From there, WIUS would see the transition from carrier-current AM to cable to openair AM to FM. IU student radio handled a period of funding so low that rooms
EMILY ECKELBARGER | IDS
WIUX station manager Brian Berger speaks about the recent decision to transfer the WIUX headquarters from the station house on Eighth Street and Park Avenue to Franklin Hall. The Tuesday night town hall meeting in the Global and International Studies Building addressed WIUX members’ concerns about the change, which is scheduled for May 2017.
were rented out as student apartments, organized the first Culture Shock music festival in 1986, and received national recognition in the 2000s under the new call letters WIUX. Student radio was asked to move again in 2014, this time just one block west to 715 E. 8th Street. There was a town hall meeting then, too, Skertic said. “They were in that house for like 40 years,” Skertic said. “But this is
only our third year in this house. So this is my WIUX home. It’s been my WIUX home for three years, but for those people, I think it was more of an institution at that point.” Lightning struck the current station house and damaged equipment in summer 2015, but that school year WIUX still would win best college radio station, best website and best public service SEE WIUX, PAGE 6
Atlanta-based band to play the Bishop tonight By Katie Chrisco kchrisco@ius.edu | @katiechrisco
A Canadian garage rock duo that also mixes doo-woop and punk will take their fall tour to Bloomington. The King Khan and BBQ Show will perform at 9:30 tonight at the Bishop with the Gartrells, a rock group from Atlanta. While the King Khan and BBQ Show have been playing as a group since 2002, The Gartrells are a newly formed band. So new, in fact, that
singer Jared Swilley said he doesn’t remember when the group formed, just that he knew he wanted to form a band with guitarist Rod Hamdallah. “I saw Rod one day in Atlanta and he had a pompadour and so I asked him if he wanted to start a rockabilly band,” Swilley said. “Me and my brother and John Kang kind of formed into playing with Rod because of his haircut.” Swilley said the group formed from band members’ other proj-
ects, such as the Black Lips and the Legendary Shack Shakers, and their tour with the King Khan and BBQ Show is their first. The Gartrells’ self-titled EP was released online on its Bandcamp in September, but Swilley said the hard copies of the EP were officially released Nov. 29. Hamdallah said MP3 files of the songs are available via Bandcamp, and the actual 7-inch records will be finished and ready for sale at the show tonight. Hamdallah said the band will
perform a set of original songs at the Bishop, with the exception of one cover. While the new EP only has four tracks, Swilley said the band has a good deal of other material. “We wrote a bunch of other songs,” Swilley said. “We’re kind of coming into fruition as a band on this tour, so it’s really a very new thing.” Although Swilley said he and the other band members are busy, the SEE BISHOP, PAGE 6
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