The Falkville Town Council decided to move forward with a pay scale plan from Condrey and Associates Tues., July 28, during a regularly scheduled work session.

After gathering data on job descriptions and other information from Falkville’s department heads, Condrey and Associates presented the council with a first draft pay scale plan. The council was given six options to review and discuss.

They picked the plan that will give the employees of Falkville the highest pay overall. This plan includes classification changes of $17,824 annually, which is a 3.27 percent increase from their current annual payroll of $554,899. The chosen plan also incorporates a three-step equity adjustment increase of $24,795, which is a 4.41 percent increase from the system they have now. Their total implementation cost would be $42,619 annually.

The council discussed the options at length, but they unanimously agreed that they should tell Condrey and Associates to move forward with the plan with the most increase to the employees. They chose the three-step equity adjustment over a similar two-step equity adjustment so employees can receive step raises with more experience. They agreed that equity increases should be given to those with more years in Falkville since new hires would be starting out at a higher pay initially.

Town Clerk Dawn Estes said the options given for the pay scale were close to the town’s current salaries.

“Their plan is not far off from what we have now as far as salaries,” Estes said. “Some positions changed more than others, but no one will be take a pay cut with any of the options.”

Falkville has 19 employees that will be affected by this pay scale plan. Estes said that only four of those 19 had been there for seven or more years.

“For as small as our departments are, we have a lot of turn over, which gets expensive,” said Falkville Police Chief Chris Free. “When I have to hire a new guy, we have to get new uniforms and other equipment for him on top of possibly having to send him to the academy. The longevity of this new plan will help us retain employees because we will have pay raises to offer them up front if they stay with us.”

The council plans to have Condrey and Associates move forward with the chosen plan so it can be implemented with the new budget in October.

This pay scale will decrease the amount of time the council has to spend discussing individual raises and incoming pay for new hires.

Condrey and Associates is charging $17,500 to be paid in two installments for the pay scale plan that includes a five-step process to provide job descriptions, evaluations and more.

“This is the smartest and most well-spent money I think this council has spent,” Free said. “This will keep employees here and help out all of the department heads as well as keeping the council from having to waste time on salaries all the time.”