Hendersonville committee backs ordinance to give pay credit for lateral police, fire hires

The Hendersonville Public Safety Committee voted to recommend Ordinance 2025-15 on Aug. 12, 2025, a municipal ordinance that would authorize chiefs in the city’s public safety departments to grant partial pay credit to certified lateral hires.

Committee members heard staff explain that the city has no formal lateral-transfer pay policy and that departments sometimes informally recognize prior service. “So the city doesn't have a formally adopted lateral transfer policy,” staff said. The ordinance would allow chiefs to offer up to half credit (a 2-to-1 ratio) for prior certified years of service when setting starting pay, so an officer with 10 years elsewhere could start at the same pay step as a Hendersonville officer with five years of service.

The nut of the ordinance, staff said, is recruitment: recognizing some prior years of service for pay could encourage experienced, certified officers to transfer without forcing them to start at the bottom of the pay scale and without requiring the city to absorb the full training costs for uncertified recruits. “When they do that, they don't have to just rely on uncertified officers because they have more folks who are certified who wanna come in,” staff said.

During discussion, police and fire leaders and committee members weighed benefits against potential morale and training concerns. “I I feel very good about it,” Police Chief Jones said, noting that Human Resources had already sometimes recognized prior service informally: “we actually with in coordination with HR, mister Eckenroth, we've been doing this for a while anyway and recognizing their prior service.” A committee member raised concerns that giving a 1-to-1 credit would be viewed as unfair to long-serving local officers and that officers from other agencies might not have equivalent training or experience.

Proponents and staff emphasized limits written into the ordinance: the pay-credit provision applies to entry-level positions only, does not by itself change a department’s seniority, and does not create an entitlement. “It does not entitle an employee who served in another agency to get that serve that credit. That's completely up to the chiefs,” staff said. Chiefs retain discretion to refuse to apply pay credit if a candidate’s prior training or readiness is not acceptable.

The committee voted to move the ordinance forward with a positive recommendation. No changes to seniority or scheduling rules were adopted as part of this ordinance; those remain subject to each chief’s policies.

The committee also handled routine motions to accept the meeting agenda and to approve minutes from the May 13, 2025 meeting before and after the ordinance discussion. The meeting adjourned after other agenda items were discussed.

What’s next: the ordinance will proceed according to the city’s legislative process, with the committee’s positive recommendation accompanying it to the next step.