The Cobb fiscal year 2023 operating budget proposed Tuesday would create 147 new positions in county government as part of a concerted effort to address what have been labeled serious staffing and employment issues.
The proposed budget of $865 million from all millage rates is up from the current fiscal year 2022 adopted budget of $768 million.
The overall proposed budget from all revenue sources is $1.15 billion, up from $1.04 billion. The majority of those additional revenues comes from water bills.
General fund revenues—which are paid for in property taxes—would rise from $496.7 million to $564.2 million for FY 2023.
There is not a proposed property tax increase for the general fund millage rate, which is 8.46 mills. Due to the Cobb tax digest increasing by 12 percent this year, that still constitutes a tax increase, since the millage rate will not be rolled back.
County officials said budget documents will be made available on its website at this link; you can watch Tuesday’s budget presentation, which lasts around two hours, by clicking here.
At a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session Tuesday, Cobb finance director Bill Volckmann said the budget figures don’t include costs for a class-and-pay compensation system that will be implemented in September.
Many of the priorities are aimed at employee recruitment and retention, and Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said the new positions are in response to feedback from constituents.
“We want to make sure our employees are valued because that’s how we provide value to our citizens,” said Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who’s complained for years that previous commissions haven’t adequately staffed, paid and retained employees in critical positions.
“I feel like we can stand tall knowing we’ve been responsive to the years of concerns and the culmination of that over the last year.”
Among her priorities is an increase in the minimum wage for county employees to $17 an hour, which is up from around $9-$10 an hour.
There is a performance-based merit raise (budgeted at 3.5 percent), continuing a step-and-grade compensation system for public safety employees, increased funding for capital maintenance projects and more funding for Cobb and Douglas Public Health and the Department of Family and Children’s Services.
The proposal also would reduce the number of years for employees to be vested in the county pension system from 10 years to five years.
Cupid summarized some of the new positions, saying some would be added for Cobb DOT for road projects and maintenance and code enforcement and some public safety positions.
The proposal includes new positions in the Cobb Police Department, seven new positions the Fire and Emergency Services Department and six new jobs in the Emergency 911 Department.
Volckmann said another 32 jobs would be created in the court system.
She said an unspecified number of new jobs would be created in the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Public Affairs Department organize special events and programming.
Cupid said that was to address “sense of place” issues that came up during three failed cityhood referendum efforts, including one in East Cobb.
She also said the budget would include funding to conduct a “disparity study” relating to businesses owned by women, minorities and disabled veterans.
Commissioners Keli Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell, the board’s two Republican members, said they couldn’t support the disparity study.
Gambrill also expressed concern about how the employee pay raise costs may be funded over the long term.
“While we do have a [tax] digest growth that will cover this change, and this increase this year, we might not have this digest growth in two years,” she said. She said that would especially affect renters who’ve received federal COVID-related assistance the last two years.
“The last time we had a tax increase [2018] it hit them the hardest, because commercial property owners are not exempt with the homestead exemption,” Gambrill said. “This will have a future impact to the most critical needs right now in our county.”
County department heads had requested more than 650 new positions across the board, coming to $178 million in new spending.
Earlier this month commissioners approved a request to spend federal COVID-related American Rescue Plan Act funds for outsourced salaries and staff retention bonuses in “critical” positions in transportation, water, and parks and recreation.
Most of the new proposed jobs would be in what Volckmann said were departments that didn’t have many vacancies, with the exception of Cobb DOT.
Cupid said filling current vacancies would be emphasized before the new positions. Cobb government has been producing content in recent weeks about staff shortages, claiming a reported 1,000 vacancies across all government agencies.
Birrell expressed concern about requesting additional jobs with so many existing vacancies.
Volckmann said as an example that in the police department, most of the vacancies are for officers. The new requests, he said, would be for specialty positions.
“We made it very clear that these are critical positions,” County Manager Jackie McMorris said, addressing Birrell. “If you asked them to go back and cut more, ‘is to do your job, continuously, without the resources you need to do it,’ that’s not fair to them.”
Among the new proposed jobs is an events coordinator for Cobb parks, recreation and cultural affairs.
McMorris said existing staff are constantly overextended handling groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings and special events for the many activities that take place at those facilities.
When Birrell asked what an events coordinator would do during slower periods, McMorris interjected: “There is no off-season in Cobb. It’s not just the mowing and the Little League.
“There are events year-round. There are events you ask them to prepare for. There is plenty of work for that events coordinator to do.”
County department heads, McMorris continued, showing some emotion, are so conservative that “they don’t want to ask you for the basic things that they need.”
Three public hearings on the budget and millage rate have been scheduled for July, with adoption scheduled for July 26:
- Tuesday, July 12 at 9 a.m.
- Tuesday, July 19 at 6:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, July 26 at 7 p.m.
Fiscal year 2023 begins Oct. 1 and continues through Sept. 30, 2023.
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