By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Pelham’s new employee pay plan is now set to go into effect with the start of the city’s 2014 fiscal year in October, but Pelham leaders will work to have it finalized by late summer.

During its June 3 meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to extend the city’s current Mercer pay plan through Oct. 1 – the first day of Pelham’s 2014 fiscal year. On Oct. 1, the Mercer plan is scheduled to be replaced by a new pay plan the city’s Personnel Board has been working to formulate for several months.

The new pay plan originally was scheduled to go into effect on April 1, but it was delayed until June 1 because of a pending lawsuit against the city. During its June 3 pre-meeting work session, council members delayed the pay plan until October to give themselves a chance to review it after it is finalized by the Personnel Board.

“Once the Personnel Board is done with it, I want to give you a chance to digest it,” Pelham Mayor Gary Waters told the council, noting the Personnel Board is more than 90 percent done with formulating job descriptions and pay levels for the city’s about 110 positions.

Though the new pay plan is not set to go into effect until October, the council will work to approve the plan by August, said Council President Rick Hayes. Finalizing the plan in late summer will allow the city to use the pay plan while formulating its fiscal year 2014 budget.

“We all wanted to implement this months ago, so we’ll shoot to get it done as quickly as possible,” Hayes said. “Even if we don’t enact it (in August), we can use the numbers a month or two early for budgeting reasons.”

Pelham started working to enact a new employee pay plan after Waters said the Mercer plan violates Pelham’s civil service law.