The Demopolis City Council approved pay raises of up to 2 percent during a special meeting Tuesday.

The raises will be based on performance reviews and will coincide with an employee’s start date. The reviews will start in July and take a year to cycle through the city’s workforce.

The raises will include all city departments, including police and fire, and will be at the discretion of department heads and reviewed by the personnel committee.

Mayor Mike Grayson stressed the raises are not automatic.

“The whole basis behind this is that we are putting some teeth into the evaluations,” Grayson said.

Grayson said it wasn’t fair to give employees who excel and those who need improvement an equal pay increase.

“If you still get the same percentage, what does that say?” Grayson said.

The raises are the first since Grayson took office five years ago. In those years employees were given a bonus of $1,000 four years and $500 another, however.

“Our greatest assets is our employees and what we are trying to do is invest back into our employees,” Grayson said.