Susan Hampton with outgoing Cobb Chamber of Commerce president Mitch Rhoden. (Cobb C of C photo)
At its annual gala dinner Saturday, the Cobb Chamber of Commerce presented East Cobb resident Susan Hampton with its Mack Henderson Public Service Award, given to “someone who is outstanding in their commitment and dedication to enhancing the quality of life for the citizens of Cobb County.”
Hampton has organized the East Cobb Business Association’s appreciation events for Cobb Police Precinct 4 officers and Cobb Fire personnel, and is part of the newly formed Cobb County Public Safety Foundation.
Over the last year, she has been outspoken in favor of better pay and benefits for Cobb public safety workers.
In being presented the award Saturday, the Chamber called Hampton a “tireless advocate for Cobb’s public safety personnel. Whether it’s acting as a vocal supporter for higher wages or organizing an appreciation event for local law enforcement, this award winner devotes her volunteer efforts to the community she serves.”
Hampton also is active with the Cobb County Coalition of Business Associations, “working with the coalition’s founders and other committed volunteers continuing the legacy of Barbara Hickey, lending her hand whenever it is needed,” according to the Chamber’s presentation.
The Cobb Chamber also honored former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson at the gala dinner. The Republican from East Cobb was presented with the Chamber’s Senator Johnny H. Isakson Leadership Award, which has been renamed in his honor.
The Chamber has dedicated the 10th floor of its new offices at 1100 Circle 75 Parkway in Isakson’s name.
Retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson speaks at the Cobb Chamber gala dinner Saturday. (Cobb C of C photo)
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As one of the more vocal community leaders in support of better pay for Cobb public safety employees, Susan Hampton was expanding a role she began several years ago on behalf of police officers in East Cobb.
Now she’s taking her activism to another level as part of a new initiative, the Cobb Public Safety Foundation, that provides support to county public safety employees and their families.
Hampton has joined the non-profit as a board member, as it raises funds and awareness.
“It’s an opportunity for people to help our public safety employees and their families,” Hampton said.
The money raised goes to those employees who may need help paying the rent, or who are sick, or in distress, or who are dealing with some other kind of physical, emotional or financial need.
The foundation was launched in June by Lance LoRusso, an East Cobb resident and attorney who represents officers with the Cobb Fraternal Order of Police.
He and Hampton were among several citizens who strongly urged Cobb commissioners this year to raise not only salaries but improve benefits and incentives for public safety employees, and called their current situation a crisis.
In the Cobb fiscal year 2020 budget adopted last month, most police officers, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies got a seven-percent raise, and those who got satisfactory performance reviews also received a one-time bonus of $1,475.
The Cobb Public Safety Foundation addresses some of the needs that other public safety advocates mentioned in public comment sessions, including financial and psychological issues.
The pledge the foundation is making to public safety employs who need assistance is this:
“Whatever the call, whatever the need, no matter the danger, the professionals we serve answer the call with a simple response: Here I am. Send me.”
The organization’s board includes some prominent Cobb citizens, including Cobb Chamber of Commerce CEO Sharon Mason and former Cobb Commission Chairman and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, both East Cobb residents.
“We believe in this so much that we’ve written personal checks to help kick things off,” Hampton said of the foundation board. “We’ll be fully transparent about where the funds are going.”
Contributions are tax-deductible, and a secure online donation page has been launched with the partnership of the Cobb Community Foundation.
Hampton is continuing in her role as an organizer of the East Cobb Public Safety Appreciation dinner, which will be held in October.
It’s a project of the East Cobb Business Association, which is giving Cobb Police Precinct 4 employees and their spouses a night with dinner and entertainment. The ECBA organizes a similar dinner for the full Cobb Fire and Emergency Services department every March.
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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.
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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As the organizer of annual dinners to honor Cobb public safety personnel, Susan Hampton is now taking an active role to appreciate them far beyond giving them one special evening out of the year.
Susan Hampton speaking at a town hall meeting at the Sewell Mill Library on March 4. (ECN file)
Over the last month or so, the East Cobb resident has shown up at all but one of Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce’s 14 budget town hall meetings to speak about what she and others have said is a “crisis” in staffing, pay, benefits and retention for county police, firefighters, EMS personnel and sheriff’s deputies.
She worked up a flyer to hand out to citizens at the town hall meetings, fraught with warnings about how Cobb is struggling to fill many openings, and is losing experienced personnel to other jurisdictions.
On Tuesday, she and more than a dozen citizens and Cobb public safety employees demanded that the Cobb Board of Commissioners act quickly not just to improve pay and benefits, but to get more aggressive in filling those vacancies, especially in a competitive market for experienced public safety workers in metro Atlanta.
“Each of you says public safety is number one and you are committed to solving the problem,” she told commissioners at their packed meeting in downtown Marietta.
“Then you say you’re only one vote . . . The problem is 10 years old, and it’s getting worse.”
She noted that already in 2019, 25 police officers have resigned or will be leaving soon, and “at this rate, we will lose over 100 officers this year. . . . There is a public safety crisis in Cobb County.”
Hampton, a vice president at the Fidelity Bank branch on Johnson Ferry Road, is co-chair of the East Cobb Business Association’s annual dinner for officers in East Cobb’s Precinct 4, as well as for the entire Cobb Fire and Emergency Services Department.
Hampton’s flyer spelling out public safety staffing, salary and retention concerns. Click here for larger view.
Most of her community activism is with ECBA, as well as the East Cobb Lions Club, and other organizations. She’s also a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year for her long-time civic leadership.
“I’m just a concerned citizen that loves Cobb County,” she said.
On Tuesday, she urged commissioners to use some of the $10 million she estimated in pay and benefits that’s available from 211 current openings “immediately” for pay increases, retirement and retention bonuses, and other initiatives to address staffing issues.
She also advocated the creation of a special taxing district for police that’s similar to how Cobb Fire is funded.
“If the city of Atlanta” can address some its public safety staffing concerns, Hampton said, to a rousing chorus of laughter in the room from many of those in uniform, “then why can’t Cobb County?”
Af the end of the meeting, Commissioner Bob Ott of District 2 in East Cobb acknowledged Hampton, telling the public safety employees on hand that “she has been out there advocating for you.”
In recent weeks, those concerned about public safety staffing have spoken out to the commissioners, but Tuesday’s turnout was the strongest yet, as a formal budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 is pending.
Some expressed frustration that the while the budget reflected public cries to enhance library hours and expand greenspace, public safety issues have been overshadowed.
Steven Gaynor, head of the Cobb chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said every area of the police department is understaffed, but Precinct 4 in East Cobb “is the least-staffed,” with eight officers for 10 beats.
He said Cobb Police can’t wait for the upcoming fiscal year 2020 budget process to address the shortages, and called for “emergency action now.”
Matt Babcock, who lives in District 3 in Northeast Cobb, had been a Cobb firefighter for 10 years until he resigned last month, because he needs “a better paycheck and retirement.” He said “chronic short staffing,” including 80 current open positions, “is a danger to the county.”
He said many engines are staffed with three and not the recommended four firefighters. Many of his former colleagues, Babcock said, “are not sticking around because they don’t see there’s a future in Cobb.”
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce’s fiscal year 2019 budget calls for the hiring of additional police officers, but more are leaving than can be replaced. (ECN file)
East Cobb attorney Lance LoRusso, who represents many law enforcement officers, told commissioners that in spite of numerous calls in recent years to address public safety staffing issues, “your responses have been weak and demonstrate a lack of leadership.”
Ott and other commissioners addressed the dozen or so speakers and said they’re working to address the staffing concerns but don’t have a specific solution for the moment.
“We hear you, we hear your concerns,” said commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in Northeast Cobb. “We have made improvements over the years, but it’s not enough. We’re working on options to come forward in the near future.”
Boyce took exception to LoRusso’s comments, and said voting to improve parks and library services doesn’t mean commissioners don’t care about public safety.
“To say that this board doesn’t care is offensive,” Boyce said. “We do care. . . You are a voice. You are here tonight because deep down you know we are going to fix the problem.”
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