News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Monterey’s efforts to increase pay for town employees and examine the community’s pay rate structure are now on hold until 2021-2022.
Monterey Alderman Nathan Walker said the finance committee only met once before the coronavirus lock down. Completing the new budget would take three to four in-person meetings to review all city employees’ pay rates.
“Being such a complicated issue, and something that we would need to be together as a board and committee,” Walker said. “To really hammer out the details, it is not something that we can do over the phone.”
In the first meeting, the finance committee met and reviewed the budgets of six cities in Tennessee including Cookeville and Crossville. Walker said they want to use Crossville as a model for their budget. A second meeting was scheduled to continue discussions of the pay increase. But Walker said that meeting date coincided with the lock down.
“The pay scale structure we have right now is very limited,” Walker said. “It is not as comprehensive as what a lot of our neighboring cities have in place. We’re looking to put together a scale and a structure that rewards the longevity of our employees so that we have maximum retention.”
Walker said they want the new pay structure to only enhance the city workers’ pay. Walker said he first mentioned an increase about two years ago. He said he looks forward to having the time to work on the issue next year.
