Jasper Mayor David O’Mary introduced a plan Tuesday that would see pay raises across the board for city employees.
Condrey & Associates, an Athens, Georgia-based, human resources consulting firm recently completed a wage study for the city. O’Mary said the firm compared job descriptions within the city to the same job descriptions in similar areas. The study provided information to show where the city should be to have a proper market rate of pay.
“The key to understanding the study is they take job descriptions. There are no names, genders, race or anything like that. It is job descriptions,” he said Tuesday during a meeting of the Jasper City Council. “They go to the market and do a comparative study. They have come back with a recommendation, and that is what is being introduced today.”
O’Mary said “every job description in this city will be favorably impacted,” calling it “the largest pay adjustment that has ever been introduced in the city of Jasper.”
The pay adjustment will cost the city just over $1.5 million per year.
“I am extremely pleased that we are positioned financially to do this and help our people,” O’Mary added. “A lot of people would like to be positioned like this city and make a significant pay adjustment for their people.”
The mayor said there had been a rumor that some people would get nothing, but the rumor is not true.
“That rumor is about as true as if someone said Nick Saban was an Auburn fan,” he said.
O’Mary did add some job descriptions would be impacted more than others.
“That’s just the results of the study,” he said. “What you will see when this is rolled out is it is a reasonable study and the numbers we have from it represent a market rate of pay.”
If the city council approves the pay adjustment at its next meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16, it will go into effect on the first day of the new fiscal year, which is Oct. 1.
While O’Mary did not specify which cities Jasper was compared to in the study, Condrey & Associates have represented cities in Alabama, including Anniston, Auburn and Rainbow City. The Jasper Water Works and Sewer Board as well as Walker County have used the firm in the past.
In action from Tuesday’s meeting, the council:
Approved a request to send bids for inmate food.
Introduced two budget amendments from the garbage fund, one for new cans and the other for a used pickup truck at the landfill.
Introduced an ordinance rezoning a 3-acre parcel of land located at and near 400 3rd Avenue from R-4 (urban dwelling) to BT (transition business district) for the purpose of ability to evaluate speculative opportunities regarding future development or possible marketing to sell.
