Between September 17 and September 25, three City of Clay governing bodies had a total of six meetings to adopt the City of Clay pay scale and classification structure for city employees.

     Four future council members were not happy with the end results. They wanted the City of Clay Personnel Board to wait until after the future council comes into office on November 3.

      Councilman Benny Grissom accuses some future council members of violating the Alabama Open Meetings Act from their discussions after one of those meetings.

     According to Susan Gilmore, City of Clay personnel administrator, she discovered that the Clay City Council had adopted the job classification structure and pay plan almost a year ago without the City of Clay Personnel Board included in the process.

     The first meeting on the issue was the advisory committee meeting on September 17 to fill Keith Waterhouse's spot because he can’t serve because he was a candidate in the recent election. Building Inspector Superintendent Lynn Burch recommended Janna Gardner to fill the spot.

     The next night, the City of Clay Personnel Board received the packet of the job classification and pay plan. They set Monday, September 22 as a date for the public hearing. 

     On Sunday, September 21, the Clay City Council also received the packet. They voted to recommend the job classification to the personnel board. 

     The classifications include a definition and examples of work for each position, who that position reports to and skill requirements. It assigns a pay grade level for each position. The personnel board has the final authority to approve the job classifications.

     The pay plan has a dollar amount range for each grade and a dollar amount assigned to each level on the scale of each grade. The council has the final authority to approve the pay plan.

     Mayor Charles Hart said in a later interview that when the current council hands over running the city to the future council, "I want them to know everything was done right." He explained, "I don't want to leave it in a mess for the incoming council."

     The personnel board's public hearing on September 22 brought about 13 people to the mayor's conference room at City Hall. Included in this number were four future city council members. Before the meeting, Mayor-elect Ed McGuffie, Councilman-elect Lional "L.B." Feemster, Councilwoman-elect Jackie Hambrick and Councilman Chuck McGuffie were seen in the City Hall parking lot in the same conversation. Three of these spoke against the board taking action a month before the future council members come into office. Councilman McGuffie, who was re-elected in August, did not speak during the meeting.

       “Why such a hurry?" asked  Mayor-elect.

    Personnel board chairwoman Melissa Jones said the city has been operating under this pay scale and job classification for a while but without the proper process of adoption.

"We've hired people and fired people under it," said board member Janna Gardner.

     Personnel administrator Susan Gilmore said the only change made this time in the proposed job classification was who reported to whom. She said the Building Inspector Superintendent now reports directly to the mayor.

      Jones said she should have looked into these matters earlier when she was appointed, but family illness and death distracted her during the spring and summer.

      "I would like to have this slowed down," said Feemster. "Let us have a chance to review this." He said he and others present had not seen the pay scale plan and job classification until that night, the night of the public hearing. 

Pat Feemster, L.B. Feemster's wife, said she looked at the post office and the public notice of the public hearing was not posted. She said the pubic didn't know of the public hearing.

      Gilmore disputed that. She said she put up the notice on Friday, September 19. Gilmore said all the law requires is a 24-hour notice.

     Mayor-elect McGuffie asked how the proposed pay scale amounts and job classifications were formed. 

      Jones said research of neighboring cities and Jefferson County were used. She said the highest and lowest were taken off of consideration in the comparison.

     Gardner said Jefferson County's fell in the middle, and the City of Clay's is very close to that.

     Discussion later in the meeting revealed that the board members did not do the research, but employees and councilmen did. Gardner said that she had reviewed the packet over the weekend and felt it was fair and equitable.

     Seniors Center Director Linda Love said she would like to change the job description of her assistant because it has the exact same requirements as her position. She also said she was not consulted as the job descriptions were being formed.

     Gilmore said Love may have been off on sick leave at the time. 

     Councilwoman-elect Jackie Hambrick said she noticed no testing requirements are included in the classifications. 

      Board members said they were open to considering that change later. 

     "The people voted for a change in August," said Mayor-elect McGuffie. He asked the board to put off taking action for another month or two until the new council can take office and have a part in forming the pay plan and job classification.

     Gilmore said that some employees have already been terminated even though the city had not gone through the proper steps in adopting these personnel policies. She said she was advised that the city may have some exposure to legal liability. 

      Board members set another meeting for two days later to give them time to get the city attorney's opinion on whether and how the classification and pay scale can be changed. They also agreed to ask the city attorney what level of liability the city has. 

     After the meeting, after all others had left the mayor's conference room, board member Gardner told other board members how concerned she was of the city's liability. 

     On Wednesday, September 24, the board met again. After distributing a copy of the city attorney's opinion, Jones asked for any new comments from the public, and with no one responding and no discussion among themselves, the board adopted the job classification structure and recommended the pay scale to the Clay City Council.

     Board member Daniel Oglesby said in a later interview that he and Jones did speak by phone saying that they didn't want the meeting that night to rehash the same discussion that occurred on September 22.

     City Attorney Milton Barker said in an e-mail that was distributed to all in attendance at the September 24 meeting that the "classification plan can be amended in the same fashion it was adopted."

     "This is from this year, this attorney, this governing body,"  said chairwoman Melissa Jones during that meeting.

     "I think this was done in haste," said Mayor-elect McGuffie after the meeting. "And to approve something that was wrong was a mistake." He said he is researching what steps the future council will have to take to make wanted changes.

      In a later interview, Jones said that she is willing to work with the future mayor and council to clean up the problems in the classifications and pay scale. But she said the city was operating without a properly adopted structure at all. "Now, at least the structure is there," said Jones of the board's actions.

     Oglesby said his goal was protect the city and the city employees.

     On Thursday, September 25, the current Clay City Council met at City Hall. Councilman Dean Kirkner said Councilman Chuck McGuffie called him before the meeting saying the current council should allow the future council to address the pay scale. Kirkner said he told McGuffie to bring up his concerns during the meeting. Councilwoman Carol Hobby said she spoke to Councilman McGuffie at Piggly Wiggly minutes before the meeting. She said he said he would not vote for adoption of the pay scale.

     During the September 25 meeting, according to Gilmore who was taking the minutes, all current council members voted in favor of adopting the pay scale, including Councilman Chuck McGuffie. He did not express his views during the meeting. He said in a later interview that he saw there wasn't any point in it.

     He said he did express his opinion during the Sunday, September 21 council meeting telling fellow council members that the process needed to be slowed down. He said that portion of the meeting Thursday meeting went so fast he didn't have a chance to respond when asked if anyone was opposed to it. He said he actually didn't vote either way. 

     He said, "I already made my point clear." He said he understands the mistakes in the pay scale and job classifications are minor, "But why not take the time to do it right," he said. "This affects the employees, but it affects the future council, also."

     After that meeting, Councilman McGuffie, Feemster, Hambrick, and Mayor-elect McGuffie were seen briefly standing on the City Hall sidewalk in the same conversation. When the Clay News reporter walked up to the group, Councilman McGuffie walked off. Councilman-elect Kevin Small joined the group and the topic of discussion was the stock market problems.

     Grissom said later that he used his Blackberry and took a photo of the group of future council members talking on the sidewalk next to  the building because he thought the four of them together could be a Sunshine Law violation.

     "We can socialize any time," said Mayor-elect McGuffie. "I invite Benny Grissom to bring his happy little butt over there any time we are out there talking. As long as we don't talk about city business, as a group of four, it is not a violation. It says so in the Attorney General's handbook on the Open Meetings Act.  Evidently he doesn't know the sunshine law."

     "It sounds more like sour grapes on the part of the outgoing administration," said Mayor-elect McGuffie.