Alpharetta firefighters will not be getting an additional boost in pay along with police officers and 911 personnel under a plan expected to be voted on by City Council Monday.
Alpharetta has been planning a 3% raise to all city employees. But in late summer, officials discovered the city brought in $1.9 million more revenue than estimated from commercial sales taxes and the local option sales tax. The additional revenue will be used for the 3% raise and the additional 10% to police and 911 staff.
Assistant City Administrator James Drinkard said Friday that market demand for police officers and 911 personnel led Alpharetta staff to suggest the additional 10% pay increase for those first responders.
Rows of firefighters attended the first reading of the pay increase last week, but did not make public comments.
All Alpharetta first responders will also get a one-time $1,000 payment through the Georgia Public Safety Officials and First Responders Supplement Grant.
The city will use some of the additional revenue to fill six vacant positions that were frozen in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. The city plans to hire two police officers, public works staff and a technology professional.
Resident Stephanie Herbert has been urging City Council members, through email and public comment at that last regular meeting, to include firefighters in the higher pay raise.
Herbert, a fitness trainer at Life Time, said she’s often seen firefighters’ work firsthand when they are called to the gym to assist members in need of medical attention.
“They don’t live in Alpharetta because they don’t make enough,” Herbert told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Why not include the firefighters and just give a lower (pay raise) to all the first responders?”
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