Local News
Salary selected for new NARCOG director
By Patrick McCrelessBoard members of the North Central Alabama Regional Council of Governments approved a $92,000 salary for their new executive director Friday.
The new director, former District 12 state Rep. Neal Morrison of Cullman, is expected to start work on Oct. 22.
The motion to set the director’s salary was approved on a 13-11 vote. In addition to setting the starting salary at $92,000, the board agreed to evaluate Morrison in six months and possibly increase his salary to $93,500 and evaluate him again in the proceeding six months, at which time they could increase his salary to $95,000, said Cullman County Commission Chairman and NARCOG board member James Graves. After 12 months, salary increases will be based on merit, he said.
Graves said those who voted against the salary represented governments from Morgan County.
“They thought we should adopt the recommendation,” Graves said.
Earlier in the week, the board received a salary study on all NARCOG personnel, which was composed by a private company. The survey suggested the NARCOG executive director should receive a starting salary at $84,073 with an opportunity for it to increase to $95,121 in a year.
“I recommended that salary was lower than what was acceptable to us,” Graves said. “We don’t hire a new executive director and pay him less than some of his employees.”
Graves said according to the survey, were Morrison to start work at the suggested salary, he would have had five or six employees earning more money. He added that the previous executive director was earning $130,000 a year.
“I’m in complete agreement with him (Graves),” said NARCOG board member and Cullman City Council President Garlan Gudger. “Some of the employees were making more than what was suggested.”
NARCOG voted to hire Morrison last month. Like the salary vote, the hiring was opposed by Morgan County representatives. Morrison’s appointment was successful in part due to the recent addition of several new board members from Cullman municipalities, including Hanceville, Holly Pond and Baileyton.
In an article published in The Decatur Daily, board member and Hartselle Mayor Dwight Tankersley said with so many Cullman County governments joining over the past two months, it appeared someone was trying to stack the board.
At the time, Graves said he and his fellow county members were exercising their rights, and noted that Cullman started adding members two months before the search for a new executive director began. Graves also said that before Cullman started adding members, the NARCOG board had been mainly under Morgan County control.
Morrison, who currently works in the workforce and skills division at Wallace State Community College, was one of two people under final consideration to replace NARCOG’s previous executive director Ron Matthews, who retired in July. The other candidate was Wally Terry, a bank executive director from Decatur.
Morrison could not be reached for comment by The Times deadline.
Organized in 1966, NARCOG is one of 12 councils of governments across the state and consists of representatives from the county and municipal governments of Cullman, Lawrence and Morgan Counties. The organizations’ responsibilities include grants and grant management, urban and regional planning, community and economic development and rural planning.
* Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.
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