Fairhope officials discuss faster reclassification for hard-to-fill jobs, consider tighter referral bonuses

Fairhope City staff presented a proposal to speed hiring for hard-to-fill vacancies by allowing certain reclassifications to lower-grade, entry-level titles without coming to the council when there is no net budget increase.

The change is intended to let departments advertise and hire more quickly for positions such as line-worker apprentices. Hannah, a city staff member who introduced the proposal, told the council: “So our request for discussion tonight is an option to, if we identify a position that we have difficulty filling or, find that it might be more valuable to advertise for an entry level equivalent to be able to reclassify that position without coming to council.”

Why it matters: Council members said the proposal could reduce recruitment time and save salary dollars when a lower-grade classification is used. The mayor added a caveat that reclassifications that raise a position’s grade or increase the budget should continue to come to the council. “I would put the caveat that if it's a to a lower classification and there's no net increase to the budget, that I would be in favor,” the mayor said.

Discussion and limits: Staff and council agreed the change should preserve budgetary checks. Hannah described internal checks involving the finance director and mayor’s office: the reclassification would proceed only with those budgetary reviews in place. Council members asked for a clear rule that any reclassification that increases the grade or the budget would still require council approval. Hannah confirmed several vacancy reclassification requests were on the evening’s formal agenda for council action.

Referral bonus ordinance: In the same discussion Hannah flagged a separate personnel policy matter: a referral incentive ordinance that currently lets employees receive a monetary bonus when a candidate they referred is hired. Hannah said the city is considering narrowing eligibility to avoid conflicts of interest — for example, excluding immediate family members and department heads who make hiring decisions. “We're looking at maybe identifying immediate family members, possibly even department heads from receiving that referral bonus, if they're the ones making the hiring decision anyways,” she said.

Next steps: City staff asked to consult individually with council members about the referral rule changes. No formal ordinance text or vote was taken in the work session; staff indicated they will return with drafted amendments for future council consideration.

Ending: The matter remains under staff review; several reclassification requests scheduled on the formal council agenda were discussed as examples and will return to the council for action as required by the budget impact rules described by the mayor and staff.