City upgrades merit pay policy

Lazaro Aleman ECB Publishing, Inc. A merit pay plan that the city manager proposed recently to the council for implementation later this year received a relatively hostile response from the city employees initially, given their misunderstanding as to the plan’s purpose. City Manager Seth Lawless made clear at the beginning of his remarks that the merit pay plan was part of a two-prong program that would include pay increases. As it turned out, however, the employees misunderstood, thinking that the intent of the merit pay was to supplant pay increases. It took some explaining on the part of Lawless, a couple of council members and City Attorney Mitchell Herring before the employees u