The Piedmont City Council approved a $100 pay increase for each pay period for the 14 officers and the Chief during their Council meeting Tuesday evening. Chief Nathan Johnson made a presentation to the Council about increasing the pay for officers.

He said he was about to lose several officers to other departments if their pay was not increased. Johnson said this is hampering him with recruiting. He told the Council he feared they would soon not have enough officers to cover all the services needed in the City if something wasn’t done. Chief Johnson presented the Council with three different pay scenarios he would like to see implemented which included developing a pay scale for the department that would include bumping the pay by $3.00 per hour which would get them to about $20 per hour so they would be competitive with surrounding departments. Councilman Jubal Feazell recommended the department give the hazard duty pay increase to help ease the situation immediately and the Council come up with a plan to increase the pay for Officers up to what Chief Johnson wanted. In addition to the Chief, 8 Police Officers were in attendance to show their support for the pay increase.

Councilman Greg South asked where the extra money would come from to pay the officers. Other Council members stated that would be the Council’s job to make it happen. Mayor Bill Baker asked the Council to wait until the next meeting to consider any increase but that didn’t happen. The Mayor said he would like to see a plan that would increase the pay for All City Employees.  The $100 per pay period increase for the Police Department amounted to $1.19 per hour, according to Chief Johnson.  During the last Council meeting, the Fire Department employees were given a $3.00 per hour pay increase to help recruit and retain Fire Fighters.