DeKalb County commissioners approved spending Tuesday for new integrity programs and employee pay raises.

Those initiatives are included in the county’s mid-year $554 million government operations budget, which calls for spending 2 percent more than last year as property values have increased. The budget holds property tax rates steady.

The budget, which passed on a 4-2 vote, includes funding for the county Board of Ethics to hire an integrity officer, an investigator and an assistant.

It also appropriates money for the DeKalb County district attorney’s office to create a six-person public integrity unit to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by government officials.

Three auditor positions would be put under the Board of Commissioners’ authority to scrutinize spending practices.

The budget also gives each of the county’s more than 6,000 government employees to receive a 3 percent pay raise, which would cost the county $4.3 million and take effect Aug. 1

About the Author

Keep Reading

“I’m not going to endorse anyone anytime soon,” Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Politically Georgia” podcast. (Jenni Girtman for the AJC)

Credit: Jenni Girtman for the AJC

Featured

Mathew Palmer, a former Delta Air Lines employee, at his home in Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.  Palmer was fired less than two weeks after writing a post on social media about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Natrice Miller/AJC)