Employees rewarded for their experience
The Flomaton Town Council approved an employee pay scale that gives out raises based on experience and certifications with Town Clerk Carrie Moore saying the raises will average between 40 cents an hour to 57 cents an hour with a total estimated yearly cost to the town $25,000.
Councilwoman Lillian Dean said the council needed to remember that Flomaton is a town, not a city and had concerns that the town could not keep up financially with the pay scale.
“I don’t want to see us lay off people to keep up with the pay scale,” Dean said. “We don’t have to base our pay scale on another city.”
Mayor Jim Johnson said he knew Flomaton couldn’t compete with Atmore and Brewton but said he’d hate to lose employees to other municipalities.
“With inflation as high as it is we need to help our employees,” Johnson said.
Johnson also noted that Flomaton would have something in place even when new council members and a mayor take over.
Moore said the raises included in the pay scale were included in the budget and said some minor adjustments may be needed but the council would have to approve any adjustments.
Mayor Johnson said the hardest part is to budget for overtime. He noted the two recent hurricanes that hit Florida, noting if Flomaton has such a disaster overtime will be needed but it’s hard to budget.
Police Chief Dereck Lowry said the police department has been working on a pay scale that was never approved by the council, noting that once an officer gets certified they receive a raise.
“I’ve never heard that,” Dean said. “It needs to be brought before us.”
Loitering
On the advice of Town Attorney Chuck Johns, the council took no action on addressing loitering in the town. Mayor Johnson said Councilwoman Kay Wagner had asked to have the item on the agenda. However, Wagner was not present at last Thursday’s council meeting.
Johns said when you watch the national news there are fears concerning immigration and homeless residents, but said the council could open itself up to lawsuits if it passes policies dealing with those issue noting that there are laws in place already to deal with loitering.
Johns said the city of Montgomery passed laws dealing with the homeless and illegal immigrants and got sued and said to date the city had spent more than $1 million in legal fees.
“We can’t make homelessness a crime,” Johns said. “It’s not a problem and we don’t need to bring attention to it.”
