The Falkville Town Council is considering bringing in a consulting firm to help them set in place a pay scale system in the five departments of the town.

The option was brought up at a work session Tues., April 28. The council favored hiring Condrey & Associaties Inc. to take the burden of setting a pay scale off the department heads.

“Their services would take the pressure off each department head of having to work out a pay scale and set their own pay,” Mayor Bob Ramey said. “I know our department heads would do a good job, but this firm can evaluate other similar establishments to Falkville and work up a job description for each position based on surveys from employees and heads. The information they give us will be invaluable and eliminate a lot of the headache we currently have of assessing each possible pay raise and initial starting salary.”

Condrey’s contract price for their services for all five departments was determined to be $17,500.

“At first I thought their fee sounded steep, but I quickly realized how helpful this pay scale will be for years down the road,” Councilman Brandon Dillard said. “We spend a lot of time thinking about this issue, and this will help us focus on other things. If I knew that a previous council could have set this up and didn’t at least really look for a feasible way to do it, I would be a little mad. Hopefully we can clear up all the confusion and help the next council.”

If Falkville signs a contract with Condrey soon, the process would begin in June and be completed by the end of August.

“Their surveys and evaluations would start in about a month,” Ramey said. “We will have input in the whole process and let them know our goals from the beginning. We can give them an idea of what our budget looks like, so they will know what kind of pay we can handle. They will keep us updated on the whole process, so we will have a say in the whole thing. We can also have them include our temporary employees in the pay scale, even if we don’t have any right now.”

Falkville would make two payments, one at the start and one after Condrey is finished. Their contract would allow Falkville to request adjustments and help for a year with no additional costs except travel fees.

Councilman David Carroll said he fully supports the proposal.

“Falkville is growing, and this will only become more of a headache,” Carroll said. “Taking care of this now will really help us out down the road. The amount is a lot, but it can be split among the departments to ease the burden.”

The council also discussed the possibility of allowing the police department to start a leadership program in Falkville Elementary and Falkville High School.

“This program would reward exemplary students and encourage leadership and good behavior,” said Falkville Police Chief Chris Free. “The rewards would be earned according to specific requirements that we would set, so students would have to work for them and learn to give back to their community. The kit we are looking at would cost $1,710 that we plan to take from the defensive driving fund.”

The council also announced they will celebrate the National Day of Prayer May 7 at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the Falkville Town Hall. The open utility position was filled by Keith Shepard who transferred from the Falkville Police Department, and the open police position has been posted.