DeKalb County Commission will hold public hearings on the budget at 10 a.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m. Thursday at the Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Dr., Decatur. The budget committee will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday to begin discussing compromises to reduce spending and to consider public input. It must vote on the interim budget this week by local law.
In a little more than a week since the idea was raised, talk of a pay increase for DeKalb County workers has been all but hushed and the discussion has revived about cutting jobs to create a smaller workforce.
Interim CEO Lee May called for a 3 percent mid-year salary increase for all county workers in his amended $584 million proposed budget. The $3.3 million cost for a half-year raise would be covered by greater-than-expected balances from 2013.
The proposed amendment holds taxes steady at $21.21 per $1,000 of assessed value. But projections show the raise, and other proposed spending, could create a tax hike as big as 25 percent next year. Although May has pledged to make cuts throughout the year to avoid any tax increase in next year’s budget, the forecasts were enough to draw condemnation from residents and commissioners alike.
“When you talk about making adjustments elsewhere, I see disbelief in the faces of some in the audience,” Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton said.
“We want the money to go where it should have been for a clean and safe environment for all residents,” said Robert DeLain, who called for improved police and code enforcement for his south DeKalb neighborhood.
That sentiment shifted talk away from a raise, which appears to be on hold until commission adopts a final budget this summer. May said he will continue to push for the raises – which workers haven’t seen for seven years – during that process.
In the meantime, May will unveil more detailed plans about ways to outsource services or eliminate specific jobs during the commission’s budget committee meeting Tuesday.
And a majority of the commissioners, who must approve a tentative budget by Friday, have already agreed to support May’s request to pay for a staffing study this year.
The $40,000 review would update a 2010 Georgia State University study that showed that DeKalb had nearly twice as many workers as Cobb and Gwinnett.
DeKalb has since whittled down its payroll from 8,077 to about 7,300, mostly through early retirement and abolishing vacant spots. But that is still far higher than about 5,000 each in Cobb and Gwinnett.
“I have not had the time yet to do the restructuring I really want to see,” said May, who has served in the interim role since July. He will remain in office until the case against suspended CEO Burrell Ellis, who has two years left in his term, is settled. “I have been harping for a long time about us being able to deliver our services at the same or higher level at a cheaper cost, without having to maintain our internal staff.”
Still, even with talk of cuts, the budget is expected to include money to fill long-vacant positions and to hire for new jobs.
For instance, the budget includes $6.6 million and $2.9 million to hire 160 police officers and 100 firefighters, respectively. The cash fulfills May’s promise to offset a high attrition rate that has left those jobs unfilled for years.
The budget also calls for spending $570,000 for DeKalb to hire seven additional code enforcement officers and one office assistant. The hires would give DeKalb 30 officers to inspect and evaluate more than 200,000 homes belonging to 700,000 people.
“Our concerns continue to be for code compliance, public safety and infrastructure,” DeLain said. “We want that budget to pass.”
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