Some DeKalb elected officials gave staff raises

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Five employees in the DeKalb County CEO’s office and three county commissioners’ assistants got raises, despite other workers receiving a pay cut.

A joint investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News found 956 DeKalb employees got increases in pay last year, but the majority of them were from promotions.

Many of those increases also included new employees who got bumps in pay after completing a six-month probation period, records show.

“There is no across-the-board merit raise or cost of living adjustment because we haven’t had the budget for it,” said Burke Brennan, interim spokesman for the CEO. “All of the people who got raises were at the requests of their supervisors. And there were very few who got straight merit increases.”

Those “very few” include employees who work directly for CEO Burrell Ellis, Commissioner Connie Stokes and Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton. The raises in the CEO’s office totaled about $32,000; Stokes’ office totaled about $20,000 and Sutton’s office totaled about $4,000.

Records obtained by the AJC also show that Ellis changes the scope of work for several of his employees, including promoting one woman from a housing project manager to deputy chief of staff – a job that carried a $31,000 raise.

But other employees – including police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers and road crews – were denied increases. They ended up losing money from unpaid holidays.

Last year, the commission approved a resolution that prohibited any employees from getting raises after February 2009. That policy was cited when some employees were denied raises.

However, Brennan said Tuesday that he couldn’t speak to that policy because each department operated under their own budget.

Stokes said she tried to abide by that policy, but when her staff heard about the CEO’s raises, she had to give in. Stokes staff began complaining after the AJC reported that former chief communications officer Shelia Edwards’ salary went from $125,000 to $138,000. Edwards resigned Monday because of other reasons.

However, the records show she also gave two of her staff members raises, including a communications manager and camera-operator for the county’s TV station.

“I thought it was not fair to them when I heard everyone else had gotten increases,” Stokes said Tuesday. “I can’t say the policy is out the window because I don’t run the county, but I understand how it may look.”

Stokes, chairwoman of the commission’s budget committee, gave one of her two assistants, Tonza Clark, a $15,300 raise last week. She argued that her staff was paid way less than other commissioners’ assistants.

However, records show that Clark’s salary was similar to other commission staff.

Commissioner Elaine Boyer, one of several commissioners who did not give her staff increases, said she was shocked to learn about raises.

“The thing that frosts me is that I felt the leadership was supportive of giving furloughs and unpaid holidays,” she told the AJC. “If we start having a special class of people, it’s going to hurt morale and turn people against each other.”

That’s just what has happened. On Tuesday, workers whispered to each about who had gotten raises.

Jeff Wiggs, president of the DeKalb Fraternal Order of Police, said morale is already at an all-time low among the rank and file – and that was before news of the raises.

“This is very much of a betrayal. It shows where the importance is,” he said. “I don’t think the public will stand for this.”

Promotions to a new rank or adding new responsibilities to your job, isn’t a raise, Wiggs said. The last county-wide merit raise or cost of living increase was in 2007.

A decline in revenue – included decreases in property and sales taxes – forced the commission to slash about $100 million from this year’s budget. Those cuts included seven unpaid holidays for all county employees and more than 800 workers taking early retirement to save the county money. About half of those vacancies are being refilled.

For police and firefighters, the unpaid holidays mean a pay cut. They are still required to work the holidays and get a cut in that week’s check instead of getting the day off, Wiggs said.

“At the end of the year, we’re making less. The weeks that we have holidays, we have a 10 percent cut in our checks,” Wiggs said. “We have to buy groceries and gas just like anybody else. This is forcing officers to leave DeKalb.”

Stokes and Sutton, the two commissioners who gave the raises to their staff, insist that they had money already in their budgets and it would not be a burden to taxpayers.

Sutton said she gave her assistant a 5 percent raise after finding out she had extra money in her budget.

Stokes gave her staff raises after last week’s election. Stokes will be leaving office at the end of year and her staff likely will lose their jobs when newly elected commissioner Stan Watson takes office.

Tucker resident Pam Lewis said the raises go to heart of what is wrong with this county: selfishness. Lewis said she has seen elected officials ignore residents’ requests for better public safety and more fiscal accountability.

“The commission is not listening to what we want,” she told the AJC. “I’m irate about the raises. Look at the economy. We need an example. This is not the time to give raises.”

Boyer said any money left in her budget will go back to the county.

“We need a unified front here. Cops haven’t been getting 5 percent raises, so we shouldn’t be giving our people raises,” Boyer said. “Everybody is hurting. This just hurts us more.”

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