Ott critical of Cobb public safety step and grade proposal

After hearing a first draft of a proposed step and grade salary and promotion system for Cobb County public safety employees, commissioner Bob Ott Monday said the plan isn’t any better than what’s in place now.

The proposal calls for a salary increase for police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and other workers, and in increments with a three-percent raise as they move up in grade.

“I don’t see any difference,” said Ott, who represents District 2, which includes part of East Cobb, at a Monday commissioners’ work session. “There’s just a difference in the numbers.”

Cobb public safety officials worked up the new plan as the next step in a series of salary, retention and promotional incentives after commissioners approved the fiscal year 2020 budget with a seven-percent pay raise for many public safety employees.

They previously received a one-time bonus of $1,450 as a good faith gesture from commissioners during the budget process.

The additional funding came after months of public lobbying from public safety employees and citizens to pay public safety employees better, provide more recruiting incentives, and increase morale. Cobb public safety has significant staffing shortages, especially with police and the Sheriff’s Office.

Cobb Police, which has a shortage of around 80 officers, has been actively sending out recruiting messages on social media, posting signs around the county (including at the entrance to East Cobb Park) and conducting job fairs in north Georgia.

Step and grade is similar to what Cobb County School District employees receive—annual, incremental raises based on a combination of factors, including years of service, promotions and performance reviews.

The Cobb public safety step and grade draft would boost the starting salary for an entry-level police officer from around $41,000 a year to $45,776 annually.

Cobb interim public safety director Randy Crider said under the proposal, an officer making $54,000 at Grade 16 and Step 6 could earn $54,976 instead under a “blue” plan that would take effect in March 2020.

Under an alternate “yellow” plan, that same officer would make $56,818 a year, with the new pay scale starting with the fiscal 2021 budget next fall.

Crider said his numbers were figured with current budgeting numbers in mind, and he told Ott that “this is to give you a structure to approve.”

The problem, as Ott saw it, was that under the draft proposal, raises would come to commissioners each year for approval. “That’s not step and grade,” he said.

Most step and grade plans, including that for Cobb schools, have automatic increases factored into budgets.

Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said the current “pay and class” system was meant to be a one-time solution. With step and grade, “the anticipation is that we’ll do this annually.”

He said it was important for the county to “continue to provide incentives” to attract police officers and firefighters for years to come. “This won’t be a one and done.

“We don’t fix this overnight. We fix it over time.”

Ott countered by saying that in a “true step and grade, you get a raise every year. And you get another raise and you get promoted.”

The proposal brought before commissioners, he insisted, means that “each year, it requires the board to make the same decisions we’re making today.”

Public safety officials had scheduled individual meetings with commissioners after Monday’s work session.

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