A recent independent study indicates Cullman police salaries are not competitive with similar departments around the state.

Cullman City Councilman Ernest Hauk agrees with the study — up to a point.

“Many, many of them (police officers) … I say they deserve more money,” Hauk said. “I don’t argue that one minute. But I do think there are other factors that the study did not show.”

The study, which was conducted by consultant Charles Swanson from Georgia, compared the direct compensation (base pay) of Cullman police officers to that of police officers in Fairhope, Gardendale, Hartselle, Hueytown, Jasper, Scottsboro and Sylacauga. When Cullman police base pay is compared with the salaries offered by those cities, the Cullman Police Department (CPD) has either the lowest or next to lowest paid employees.

While Cullman police officers’ direct compensation may be lower than that offered by other departments, Hauk said other sources of income are available to the city’s law enforcers.

“There are other ways they supplement their salaries,” Hauk said.

He said in addition to base pay, the CPD offers its officers overtime money, education bonuses for officers who obtain certain degrees, uniform allowances and bonuses for passing the department’s physical fitness test.

“The study did not include that,” Hauk said. “And so it would be interesting to see what the other cities pay out in total salary expenditures compared to Cullman’s total salaries. That’s something that needs to be considered.”

Hauk added that the study shows that the CPD has more higher-ranking positions, such as lieutenants, than many of the other cities surveyed.

“And of course by the very nature of being in a higher rank, you’re going to make more money,” he said.

Cullman Mayor Donald Green said the study was still just a preliminary examination of city police salaries.

“He (Swanson) doesn’t claim it to be fully in-depth,” Green said. “I felt like that should be emphasized. But I think it’s a good study and there’s enough evidence there for a comprehensive study of all departments’ pay.”

In addition to stating police salaries are not competitive, the study suggests a city-wide salary study be conducted.

“This condition is unlikely to be limited to just one department in Cullman and is probably an exemplar of a wider problem,” Swanson said in the study.

To Councilman Wayne Walker, a full salary study is warranted for all city departments.

“I think we need to do one for the whole city,” Walker said. “You can’t just single out one department.”

The independent study stemmed from a controversy over local police salaries that began last year. When the 2008 budget was passed in October, city employees, including police officers, received a 2.5 percent cost of living raise. Members of the police department said the decision was discouraging and nearly 5 percent less than what they felt they were due to cover cost-of-living increases.

The study was ordered as a result.

“The main thing is what we did is try to be positive toward our employees,” Green said. “This is something we did because the police department expressed a problem. We felt like if an employee has a problem, we need to try and look into it.”

Swanson is scheduled to speak with the city council concerning the study on Sept. 26.