News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Algood City Council approved premium pay for its city employees Tuesday night that have been employed since January 2021.
City Manager Keith Morrison said that if all requirements are met, full-time employees can earn up to $1,500 in bonuses and part-time employees can earn up to $900.
“Originally when that ordinance started it was thought to be around $4,000, they wanted to scale it back so we scaled it back to about $1,500,” Morrison said. “But left some stipulations in there so that we have some guidelines so if the federal government comes back and asks ‘Do you have a set of rules that you followed,’ that yes, we do.”
Morrison said that the money comes from American Rescue Plan money. He said that after these employees receive their funding, the city will have some $422,000 left in its ARP funding.
Council member Ron Graves said that while this seems like an exorbitant amount of leftover money, it’s also needed for various projects throughout the city like a new dump truck.
“These particular funds were sent back to the city for the benefit of the whole city,” Graves said. “Part of the city are the employees, but there are other people in the city that depend on these services that we provide to them. So I have to look at it as the overall picture of how do we spread this out to try to address the needs of everyone in Algood the best we can.”
The vote, however, was not unanimous. Vice-Mayor Bill Bilbrey and Council member Ruby Hawkins both voted no, citing that the city could afford a greater premium pay.
“The original amount I offered was $4,000, in the original,” Bilbrey said. “And I think that would’ve been a fair amount, and I think that $1,500 low-balled our employees. That’s my opinion.”
The premium pay is set to be a one-time expenditure. Mayor Lisa Chapman-Fowler said that as discussions occur in the next few months for the next fiscal year budget, they would look at what a potential pay-scale increase would look like.
