Wednesday, April 23, 2014

OPEN COMMENTS

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's what really ticks me off. The county is wasting over 300k dollars to fund a pay study. Might I mention it is county wide. So that means everyone is thrown into the pot together as far as compensation goes. A librarian will be compensated (if at all) the same as a police officer. Last time I checked the good librarian wasn't putting their neck on the line and going into a potentially dangerous situation on every call. Our commissioners are one of two things: delusional for thinking we are dumb enough to be pacified by this blatant slap in the face or they are just plain ignorant. WAKE UP FOLKS. Police officers are still leaving in droves. 13 already this year. There have been several requests for officers background files from other agencies looking to hire cobb officers. How long before something gets done about the retention issues facing the police department? No one in county management seems to be willing to answer that question.

Anonymous said...

Just found out two more are leaving, one for a civilian job and another for Fire.

Anonymous said...

Day shift at precinct 3 was scheduled 3 open beats today. And one officer had a must appear for court. That puts them at 6 officers to work 10 beats for the morning. Ready for a 1 o'clock Braves game? I see out future and its looking bleak.

Anonymous said...

We need to let the county manager know we are on to his game. All these years he has flat out refused to even consider take home cars and now all of a sudden they're on the table. He knows damn good and well that even if the commissioners sign off on it there is no way the public is going to pass any kind of splost for this county. Especially after the article in Sunday's paper talking about how the stadium is gonna cost a lot more than predicted. They know it won't pass but now he can say he wasn't the roadblock any more. This just really pisses me off. I can't believe they think we are really that stupid.

Anonymous said...

We need help NOW, not at the end of a pay study that will take a year to complete. We may be picking up the pace on hiring, adding laterals, etc... but we are only pouring more water into the top of a bucket with a huge hole in the bottom. Two and three year officers are signing up for advanced classes at the academy and blatantly admitting they are doing it to make themselves more attractive to other agencies at hiring time. Used to be a stigma to admit you are looking elsewhere. Now it seems stupid to stick around if you have another option. There are some of us left who are still proud to wear the uniform and say we are CCPD. Give us something to stick around for, not more empty promises that we never see fulfilled. They found $350 million, oops I mean $368 million to build a baseball stadium. How about a little tip of the hat to the cops who are doing our best to hold the wolves at bay, but can't find a police car to get into to respond to a murder at Cumberland Mall in broad daylight. By the way... the front door of Cumberland Mall is 3/4 mile from home plate. Sure hope something changes soon... opening day won't take care of itself.

Anonymous said...

Now they think moving veteran officers out of special ops will solve the problem. The problem is they are now pushing the veteran officers into leaving. They think that this will keep people from leaving. News flash until the department and county start appreciating the officers they have then nothing will change. It's not getting any better here. Morale is as low as it's been since Sharon Moody was in charge.

Anonymous said...

Interesting take on the pay study from MDJ columnist Don McKee:
http://mdjonline.com/bookmark/24990975-Non-existent-counties-on-client-list-a-metaphor-for-salary-study
"The county has to pay some consultant $326,420 to do what management is supposed to do?"

Anonymous said...

Another critical incident at shift change, and again the oncoming shift was sitting on their hands at the precinct while all the squad cars were at the call. This time it was Pct 1 on Friday afternoon (Apr 25), and the hot call was at KSU. Evening shift sat around for an hour until day shift started coming back in to give up the cars. This is at least the 4th time this year this has happened. This is an incredibly stupid way to manage a county. Sooner or later it will catch up with us. For want of a nail, a kingdom was lost.

Anonymous said...

STEP got into a chase today with a armed robber among other charges. Pct 3 had to leave the scene so they could give their cars to evening shift cause once again there weren't enough cars. Just another example.

Anonymous said...

Zone 3 just lost two more to the fire department

Anonymous said...

I believe the total officers that have left the department in 2014 is now 20, I know of 2 officers with almost 20+ years looking at the School Police.

Anonymous said...

A question I heard from a citizen: why not save money by only keeping officers for a few years? Train 'em, get a few years of service from 'em, and let 'em leave before they start soaking up sick leave or drawing retirement. This sounds like consumerism at its best. Buy a cheap toaster, use it for a few years, then throw it away when it breaks and buy another cheap toaster. Do this with cops, though and you get a department full of inexperience which leads to bad judgement calls. Do you want Barney Fife responding to your frantic 911 call or would you prefer Andy Griffith?

Anonymous said...

Kudos to Superior Plumbing who showed up at Pct 1 Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtime with a big grill, hamburgers, hot dogs & drinks. They fed hosedraggers and cops alike. They may be back again on Thursday although this is not confirmed.

Anonymous said...

Why does our public safety director keep sending update videos in an email that cant be watched. I have been trying for 2 days to open it and no one at the precinct knows how either. Guess you need to know the fireman handshake to figure this crap out. They have this technology these days that lets you click on a link and it goes to a video. Maybe someone should show it to him.

Anonymous said...

You didn't miss anything in the update. We still won't have enough cars and people are still leaving in mass. The commissioners and county manager have their heads in the sand and until we clean house nothing will change. Someone told me the other day that are motto is now "we leave and others follow".

Anonymous said...

Nothing more uplifting than to see your Precinct Captain run and workout in the middle of day shift. Wonder if he's on the clock? Wonder if he has the Precinct so squared away and everyones morale up? Wonder if he just don't care? Must be nice COMMAND STAFF!!

Anonymous said...

MARIETTA - The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday will consider hiring former Atlanta Deputy Commissioner Sheila Cook Pierce as the county's new purchasing director. Also, Chairman Tim Lee will give an update on the county's independent citizen oversight committee.

County Manager David Hankerson will recommend appointing Pierce. As purchasing director, she would be in charge of all equipment and services for each county department, and would oversee 57 employees, including fleet maintenance and records retention operations, county spokesman Robert Quigley said.

The county is aware of her firing, but several Atlanta and Fulton County officials have given her "excellent" recommendations. Quigley also said the county is aware Pierce recently resolved a tax lien against her. Although he would not give specifics related to the lien, Quigley said it was not a deterrent to her employment eligibility.

I wonder why Public Safety personnel are held to a higher hiring standard than those elected and/or appointed to handle the County finances.

She will be approved and assist the Hankerson & Lee team continue doing things the Cobb Way!

Sad Times!!!!!!!!