The Scottsboro City Council held a work session last week to discuss financial and public safety items, including proposed changes to the city’s business license ordinance, financing for new equipment, one-time holiday pay raise for employees and long-awaited updates to public safety pay scales.
Council members revisited proposed amendments to the city’s business license ordinance, which has not been adjusted in approximately 17 years. Officials acknowledged that some concerns were raised during the previous discussion regarding certain percentage increases affecting businesses.
In response, adjustments were made to scale back some of the proposed increases for specific businesses. The updated proposal presents two options: the original proposal and a revised version showing the adjusted fees. Finance Director Monica Roden emphasized that only the upper-tier licenses would see notable increases, while smaller businesses would experience minimal changes.
“This is not about hurting small businesses,” Roden explained. “Some of the larger numbers look big because those businesses also generate significant revenue. The minimum license fee did increase from $25 to $50, but the lower end of the scale remains largely unchanged.”
Council members thanked Roden for her work adjusting the figures and responding to council concerns.
Council also discussed a resolution to approve financing for a new front-end loader for the Street Department. The city received five bids for financing, with the lowest bid coming from Cadence Bank at an interest rate of 3.75%.
This item is expected to be moved forward for action at an upcoming meeting.
Another item discussed was a resolution authorizing a one-time pay raise for city employees in place of a Christmas bonus. Council members noted that Alabama law prohibits public employee bonuses, including holiday bonuses.
To comply with the law, the City of Scottsboro has provided a one-time pay raise to employees instead for more than 30 years. Officials confirmed that this year’s Christmas compensation will follow the same legally approved method.
The most extensive portion of the meeting focused on proposed updates to police and fire department pay scales. Council reviewed three different pay scale options, along with the city’s current scale.
Police and fire administrators explained that compression in the current pay structure has caused minimal differences between ranks, meaning higher-ranking officers often receive only small increases despite significantly greater responsibility.
Scottsboro Police employee Ryan Putman noted that COVID-era pay increases in surrounding cities had widened the gap between Scottsboro and neighboring departments, contributing to serious staffing challenges. At one point, the Police Department was short 11 officers in a 44-officer department, a 25% shortage.
A “middle-ground” proposal was presented by Putman that would increase base officer pay by 2%, standardize annual raises at approximately 4% across ranks, provide clearer percentage increases tied to promotions, and correct pay compression between patrol officers and supervisory leadership.
Fire Chief Jon Lee echoed similar concerns, noting that the department has hired 14 firefighters in the past three and a half years and now has very limited senior staffing. Lee stressed that retaining trained personnel is becoming increasingly difficult without competitive pay.
Both Lee and Putman emphasized that the proposed changes are not meant to fix everything overnight but represent a critical step toward workforce retention, fairness between ranks, and competitiveness with neighboring departments.
Council members thanked police, fire and finance officials for months of collaborative work reviewing the pay structure and expressed appreciation for first responders’ service.
