FAIRHOPE, Ala. - City employee pay scales and job descriptions will face new scrutiny and organization under a plan proposed by the Personnel Board this week.

The City Council approved a request from that board at the Jan. 24 meeting to seek bids for a business to help create pay scales and job descriptions for every employee in the city, the city’s human resource director said after the meeting.

Lorenzo Howard, a member of the volunteer citizen board with professional human resource experience, reported to the council on the board’s work of the past year in reviewing a number of personnel issues, pointing to some long-standing matters that prompted its request.

“Paying people instead of job duties is a no no,” Howard told the council at a work session prior to its regular meeting. “You can get yourself in trouble a lot of ways, but that one can get you in trouble real fast.”

Howard said the board discovered what he called “a citywide problem” on paying employees different rates for the same jobs because they had been with the city longer than the other employee.

“The city of Fairhope has been a very good employer for years, and we care about our employees,” Howard said. “But there were times when employees did a job for 20 years or more who got transferred to another department – and there may have been some performance issue – and their salary also transferred. That person ended up in a situation where they were paid a higher salary than the people they worked for.”

Howard said the board was seeking permission to request bids from companies to help evaluate job descriptions and pay scales in the city from the janitor on up to the mayor.

“The legal purpose of this as I understand it,” said Council President Lonnie Mixon, “ is we can get in real trouble for different pay for different people doing the same work.”

Howard said the board found that to be the case with some of the longer-employed city staff.

“The problem is for people who are being paid less money but are actually doing the identical job classifications,” Howard said. “And there were some jobs we didn’t even have job descriptions for.”

In other business, the council at its Jan. 24 meeting:

• Heard a report from Mayor Tim Kant responding to critics of the way $639,000 in BP funds were awarded by the city to a company owned by state Sen. Trip Pittman. That contract has generated extensive local criticism and an ethics complaint alleging that Pittman used his official position for personal gain. Kant used documents and slides to demonstrate what he said was a legal arrangement between the city and Pittman’s company. The city attorney and a Hand Arendall attorney representing the city in some issues stated to the council that they had reviewed the contract and its award and found it did not violate any legal procedures.

• Reappointed attorney Haymes Snedeker as municipal judge for another two-year term.