DAPHNE, Ala. — Some Daphne City Council members indicated they may support compromising a hiring freeze after Daphne Recreation Director David McKelroy asked city leaders Monday to fill two vacant positions in his department: the recreation program coordinator and the athletic coordinator.

McKelroy said the recreation program coordinator deals with field and room rentals for the city and coordinates activities like Art in the Park, Wet and Wild and the sunset music series.

The athletic coordinator organizes youth sports programs in the city and if the position were not filled, Mayor Fred Small said, the programs would have to “revert back to self- or parent-coordinated.”

The previous athletic coordinator held the position for 11 years, McKelroy said, but took a position in Gulf Shores. Because of his tenure, the newly hired athletic coordinator would not be paid as much as the outgoing coordinator. McKelroy said the outgoing coordinator was being paid just more than $45,000 annually, and the new employee would earn around $37,200.

Councilman Derek Boulware asked McKelroy if there was a way to bring an employee from another department to fill one of these vacant positions.

“They don’t have the education or expertise required,” McKelroy said of current employees.

“I don’t think any department wants to give up any employee,” Small said.

Boulware contended that the city’s hiring freeze is supposed to keep positions from becoming filled, but if something must be filled the city can find other ways to prevent hiring a new employee.

“The answer is not hiring out of the city but hiring within the city,” Boulware said. “Start using what you got.”

Other council members said they were in favor of filling the athletic coordinator position after McKelroy said it was the position he would rather fill if he had to choose between it and the recreation program coordinator.

“It’s not us balancing the budget. It’s us telling he citizens, ‘Here’s something you’re not going to have,’” Councilman Ron Scott said, noting the city has saved around $59,000 so far from the hiring freeze but is also around $240,000 above expectations in sales tax revenue through the fiscal year.

McKelroy said the revenue hit from not filling the positions is “minimal” as far as field rentals and concessions revenue, but the economic hit comes from the city hosting fewer tournaments and having fewer hotel rooms rented and less money spent in the city.

Councilman John Lake said he wants the positions filled because revenue from filling the athletic coordinator would exceed the salary, and the programs offered by the recreation program coordinator allow the city of Daphne to be a community.

“These two positions are not costing the city anything. They’re keeping it a home,” he said.

Councilwoman Cathy Barnette said she is in favor of hiring an athletic coordinator, but “would like to think the city would find a way to support the events” the recreation program coordinator oversees without filling the position.

“The funding for the programs is in the budget. It’s the personnel,” she said.

The city enacted a hiring freeze with the passing of the new fiscal year budget at the Dec. 21 meeting. The hiring freeze would not fill all positions that become vacant over the next fiscal year in hopes to save around $300,000 for the city.

All departments wanting to fill a position must submit a request to Human Resources Director Vickie Hinman and Mayor Fred Small and then come before the council during a work session to propose to add the filling of the vacant position to the next budget.