DeKalb commission ignores chief's plea for police raises
After pleas from the chief and an ongoing ticket strike, DeKalb County officials may agree to pay police officers who work on holidays. But the officers will still face seven furlough days.
“We’re encouraged by that, but it’s still putting a Band-Aid on a knife wound,” said Jeff Wiggs, president of the DeKalb Fraternal Order of Police. “I don’t want to be ungrateful, but at the end of the year, it’s still a pay reduction.”
Recognizing for the first time that there is a ticket strike, Chief William O’Brien implored county commissioners Tuesday to restore officers’ holiday pay and raises.
“I do not support any type of ticket slowdown,” the chief told commissioners. “But I empathize with an officer’s need to feel valued and supported. … Morale is suffering due to the impact the current situation has placed us in. You, the commissioners, have the power to impact morale.”
But that likely won’t happen anytime soon.
In February, the commission voted to stop paying county employees on holidays as part of county-wide budget cuts. Most employees get the day off, but police and firefighters are required to work on those holidays and not get paid. Instead, they receive a cut in that week’s paycheck.
On Tuesday, county commissioners said there is no money in the budget to give officers a merit raise nor to take away the pay cut. The only concession the commission may make is to allow officers and other first-responders who work on holidays to get paid time and a half and get another unpaid day off, Commissioner Larry Johnson said. The commission will vote on that proposal in two weeks.
“We don’t want anyone to lose pay,” said Johnson, the commission’s presiding officer. “I hope they rethink this ticket slowdown. ... If it hits the bottom line, we’re back where we started."
While a ticket strike is prohibited, the officers cannot be punished for issuing warnings instead of citations, police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said. The department is also prohibited from mandating ticket quotas.
“There is no audit or internal review on who is not writing tickets because per our policy ticket-writing is discretionary,” Parish said.
Through a police blog and word-of-mouth, officers have encouraged each other to write warnings and hurt the county in the same way the county has hurt them: less revenue.
An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found the ticket furlough is having an impact: DeKalb officers issued 30 percent less tickets in July compared to July 2009. Officers estimate the reduction in tickets in June and July has cost the county at least $1.7 million.
Like the chief, the Fraternal Order of Police also says they do not support a ticket slowdown, but said there is a morale “crisis” in DeKalb. The FOP has complained that CEO Burrell Ellis and two county commissioners, Connie Stokes and Sharon Barnes Sutton, gave raises to their staff while other employees received pay cuts.
“We got to quit playing the shell game. It’s not a holiday. It’s a reduction in pay,” Wiggs told commissioners. “Commissioners who did not give your staff raises, we commend. The ones who did, shame on you. That is another slap in the face to the officers who are protecting you while you are sitting behind a desk in an air-conditioned office.”
While Ellis did approve raises for several of his staffers, he also proposed a 1 percent pay raise for all county employees – including police – along with paid holidays. However, the commission voted against that proposal because it would require a property tax increase. Ellis, who said he also has taken unpaid holidays himself, said he still supports a tax increase.
“We thought that was important to instill morale as we were downsizing the government and adding additional responsibilities to employees,” Ellis said Tuesday. “It would have been only an extra $20 a year per household, but the commission voted against raising the millage.”
