As the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved the hiring of a new public safety director Tuesday night, many of those working for county public safety agencies and members of the public told them that a proposed five-percent pay increase isn’t sufficient.
That’s how much more Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce wants to pay them in his draft fiscal year 2020 budget proposal. The boost includes a three-percent hike for all county employees, plus another two percent for public safety personnel.
For several weeks those working for police, fire, sheriff’s office and 911/emergency agencies have told commissioners morale is deteriorating because of poor salary and benefits packages and retention rates, compared to other jurisdictions in metro Atlanta.
Among those speaking out was Susan Hampton (in photo), an East Cobb citizen who helps organize an annual public safety appreciation dinner for police officers in Precinct 4 and another for Cobb firefighters.
“I am begging you to fix it now,” she said as the last of a long line of public speakers demanding immediate action, and not later in the summer, during the budget process.
“Fix it now” was a message some brought to the meeting as they held up signs and wildly applauded what Hampton and others were saying.
Commissioners named Cobb Police Chief Mike Register the new public safety director, and he pledged to those in the audience to “make public safety a better place to work.”
The vote to approve Register was 4-1, with Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb opposed, saying he’d prefer the $300,000 or so budgeted for public safety director (half salary, the rest support staff) go to addressing staffing shortages.
Ott said he wasn’t opposed to Register, whom many praised during the evening, getting the job.
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Hampton, who’s been especially vocal about what she has called a public safety “crisis” in Cobb, said starting police officers in Cobb are paid around $40,000 a year, compared to $48,800 in Atlanta and Brookhaven.
After five years of service, that Cobb officer would get $44,000. A five-percent raise would result in a salary level of $46,000, she said. In Gwinnett, officers at the five-year level are paid around $53,000, while in Atlanta and Brookhaven it’s around $59,000.
“A five-percent increase will not make Cobb County competitive,” she said.
To fund the extra two percent raise, Boyce has proposed not funding an allotted 40 new police officer positions and another 40 new sheriff’s office positions.
In other words, Hampton concluded, “public safety has to fund their own increase.”
She suggested that the county use revenues from projected growth in the county tax digest this year to help pay for additional public safety spending.
Others urged the commissioners to address retirement and retention issues they say are getting worse.
Steven Gaynor of the Cobb Fraternal Order of Police said the savings from not funding a public safety director, as Ott prefers, “wouldn’t have helped us much.”
Gaynor requested a 10-percent raise and prefers a step and grade retirement system that Ott has suggested.
The most pressing issue, Gaynor said, is filling job openings that are continuing, as the county is conducting a hiring spree for public safety.
“We had eight [police academy] graduates last Thursday,” he said, “but we lost 13. We cannot keep this up. . . .
“Set in place a plan that will take us into the future.”
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