CULLMAN, Ala. – The Cullman City Council on Monday evening voted to give the Cullman Police Department’s Field Training Officers a 75 cent per hour raise, and a $1 per hour raise to the FTO supervisor. Up to seven officers will be allowed to serve in that capacity, with an eighth FTO serving as the supervisor. FTO’s currently draw overtime pay for time spent after their shifts filing paperwork related to the program; according to CPD Chief Kenny Culpepper, the overtime will be phased out and that pay replaced with the raise, in order to standardize pay rates.
The job of the FTO is to provide on-the-job orientation to newly hired officers, for which the officer himself or herself must undergo a course of formal training. During this training, several areas are covered using a standard curriculum, including CPD policy, use of force, traffic crashes, vehicle pursuits, burglary and robbery investigations, death investigations, evidence collection, sexual assaults, domestic violence incidents, criminal and traffic laws, handling mentally ill persons, bomb threat calls and officer-involved shootings.
“The goal of the CPD Field Training Program is to train a new officer to the best of the FTO’s ability so that the new officer can serve the citizens of Cullman in a professional and knowledgeable capacity,” said Sgy. Joey Duncan.
Water billing policy amended
The council also voted to amend Water Department billing policies to allow bill adjustments for leaks and annual pool filling. Customers may receive one leak adjustment and one pool fill adjustment in a 12-month period. For a customer to qualify for a leak adjustment, the customer’s usage must be two times more than the customer’s past 12-month average, the customer must have lived at the current address for a minimum of six months, the customer must provide proof leak has been fixed (usually a receipt from the repair), and the duration of the customer’s leak cannot exceed a three month period.
For a customer to qualify for a pool fill adjustment, the customer must allow the city to read the meter before and after the pool is filled.
Leak Adjustments are calculated as follows: Amount paid by the customer to the city during leak minus the most current 12-month average of the customer for each month during the customer’s leak equals the leak adjustment to the customer which will be credited to the customer’s account with the city. Pool fill adjustments are calculated as follows: Gallons used to fill the pool from the readings by the city times sewer rate equals the pool fill adjustment to the customer which will be credited to the customer’s account with the City.
The council also authorized Mayor Woody Jacobs to apply for a $2,000,000 loan from Peoples Bank for “the construction of a 100’x100’ aircraft hangar and multiple properties adjacent to the Airport Board at Cullman Regional Airport.” The construction projects were approved at the last council meeting.
In other business, the council voted to:
- Create a new officer manager position for the City Garage
- Award a contract for fencing at Wild Water Waterpark to Parris Fence Company, LLC, in the amount of $111,274.87
- Authorize the mayor to purchase property from the Cullman County Center for the Developmentally Disabled, located across the street from the CCCDD office. According to Mayor Jacobs, the property could be the future location of storm shelters for the south end of town.
- Approve the fiscal year 2021 annual audited financial statements. According to Council President Jenny Folsom, the city’s audit was “clean, with no major findings.”
- Reject all bids and rebid landscaping and irrigation at Wild Water Waterpark
- Approve a change order to Carcel & G Construction, LLC to add $135,987.25 to its current contract for landscaping and irrigation in the parking lot and around the Wild Water Waterpark, raising the overall contract price for the parking lot project from $1,912,495.75 to $2,048,483.00
- Rezone property north of Old Hwy 157 from R-4 to PR-2 Planned Unit Development District, allowing for the construction of single-family homes on small lots.
The Cullman City Council meets at 7:00 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at Cullman City Hall. The public is invited to attend.
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