At the June 4 Russellville City Council meeting, the council voted to omit the fourth item on the agenda – an ordinance to adopt the personnel policy and procedures manual – after debating for more than an hour about changes that have been made and changes councilmembers would like to see made.

The main source of discussion was how the city gives pay raises to its employees.

Representatives from the Government and Economic Development Institute at Auburn University attended the meeting to address any issues or concerns the community or council had. Maria Tamblyn spoke on behalf of the institute about the recommendations that had been made and that the civil service board approved.

Tamblyn emphasized the institute is mainly a resource for the council and civil service board and that the ultimate decision regarding policies and procedures lies with the city council.

“You are a merit civil service city, and we are working toward those priorities as well and will continue to work on those things so that the city is compliant with federal and state laws,” Tamblyn said.

Based on the recommended changes, a city employee would receive a longevity pay raise after 10 years of working with the city, and any other pay raises before that time period would be at the discretion of each employee’s supervisor and yearly review. Raises would be dependent on the fiscal state of the city that year and the amount of money that the city council determines to be available for that year.

Councilman Gary Cummings expressed his concern – a concern he said he has heard from city employees already – that this form of offering pay raises does not provide incentive to the employees and opens up the chance for discrimination in the workplace. Councilman David Palmer disagreed.

“There’s a thought out there that we’re adopting something that’s going to make them worse off financially than they were before, and I don’t believe that’s the case,” Palmer said.

Before the changes, the policy was that city employees would receive a 5 percent raise after six months, two years and five years and then every five years after that point. According to Tamblyn, having an across-the-board pay raise every year isn’t healthy for the city because the city’s finances will not be the same every year and might not be able to sustain it.

“Our concern is for the city, but we hope things are also good for the employees,” Tamblyn said.

After much back-and-forth discussion, the council tabled the matter and omitted it from the council agenda. The institute made a list of the issues that were discussed and announced hopes to have a recommendation ready before they leave the city this week.