The Knox City Council at their meeting this week passed a motion to amend the salary ordinance for city police, specifically the pay grade for the corporal position.
Mayor Rick Chambers explained that at some point in time, the corporal’s pay got spread out farther than it should have from the pay for other positions. He said that whenever an officer receives a promotion, he naturally receives a pay raise, but the gap in pay from patrolman to corporal is a $912 increase – way too much, according to Chambers.
The city currently only has one officer with the rank of corporal: Chad Keen, who is leaving the department toward the end of the year. As a result, Chambers said he would like to amend the salaries before hiring a new corporal. The new pay raise would be a $500 increase from patrolman rank to corporal, and the $562 raise in pay for being promoted from corporal to sergeant would remain the same.
Chambers also sought to change the way pay increases work for probationary patrolmen. He said when an officer is hired without an academy certification, they start out with probationary pay. However, the city is now looking to hire a patrolman who has earned his certification, so Chambers said it would only be fitting to start him out at the full pay for patrolmen.
A motion was made to approve both of Chamber’s amendments to the ordinance but died for lack of a second. A second motion was then made to only modify the corporal pay raise but hire the new patrolman at the probationary pay rate, which was seconded and then approved with one objection.
