DAPHNE, Ala.—The Daphne City Council enacted a hiring freeze in October as a money saving measure and some residents present at Monday’s council meeting questioned whether the council is upholding the hiring freeze ordinance.

The hiring freeze was supposed to save the city $300,000 for the fiscal year, which began in October. Council member Ron Scott said the hiring freeze has already saved the city $115,000 since October.

The council is considering creating a deputy finance position, a temporary custodian position and filling two vacant positions in the public works department, a grounds worker and a mechanical technician.

When the hiring freeze was enacted, exemptions were allowed for special circumstances, such as when a vacant position was detrimental to the city’s ability to run efficiently.

Richard Johnson, public works director, approached the council at a recent work session to discuss the necessity of the grounds worker position and the mechanic technician position.

He said the loss of employees has “crippled the department’s ability to handle the needs of the city.”

Johnson said the grounds department is only working with 70 percent staff, and the lack of staff would have an impact on the department’s ability to maintain the grounds of city property and parks in the near future. Johnson also said the mechanical technician would save the city money in the long run because a mechanical technician on the city’s payroll is cheaper than paying an outside mechanic by the hour to do the same work.

Finance director Kim Briley also approached the council at a work session about hiring a CPA for the finance department. She said creating the position would allow the department to handle more and branch out to use new technology. Briley said the new position was necessary since the department is handling $46 million in accounts with the same number of employees instead of $3 million in accounts 15 years ago.

The city council did not decide to vote on the exceptions to the hiring freeze. The hiring of these four new employees will be discussed and voted on at the next city council meeting on April 4.