Be Heard!

The Cobb Board of Commissioner meeting is Tuesday, October 25th at 7pm.  Status Quo - they aren't planning on discussing the pay study, police retention or any of the needs of the department with the Braves coming.

People can show up to discuss things in the open comment.  I hear there will be someone there to bring up our concerns.  Feel free to join them to show support.  Encourage your friends and family to attend as well.

If they can't make it, ask them to shoot their commissioner an email highlighting their concerns.  Not sure who their commissioner is?  They can find out here:

http://cobbcounty.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=1645

Be heard! Do not go gentle into that good night.


Update:

FOP President Steve Gaynor presented the following message during the open comments section of the October 25th meeting.  Here is what he presented to the Board during those comments:

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, and Mr. Hankerson
 My name is Steven Gaynor and I am the President of the Cobb County Fraternal
 Order of Police located on Austell Road in Marietta. We represent just over
 550 sworn law enforcement members from Cobb County agencies.
 Tonight, I would like to voice our concerns about the on-going issues with
 recruitment & retention of Cobb County Police Officers. For more than two
 years this commission has expressed that public safety is your number one
 priority and you have been working to improve the issues with attracting and
 keeping good candidates for the police department. You keep saying that you
 want to attract & retain the best and the brightest. Well, I’m here tonight to tell
 you that our members have not seen this happening. You have fallen far short
 of this goal and officers continue to leave the police department at an alarming
 rate. Although the numbers show there are 691 sworn positions within the
 police department and only 37 of these slots are reportedly vacant at this time.
 These numbers are misleading and do not take into account the large number
 of officers still in the training process. If you were to exam the number of open
 positions at each precinct & unit, you would find that there are serious issues
 with staffing and with providing the fine citizens of Cobb County proper serve.
 Over 2 1⁄2 years ago, FOP President Bill Mull came before you and asked for
 your help in addressing the recruitment and retention issues within the police
 department. Your answer to that was to conduct a “PAY STUDY” which was to
 take 18 months to complete. It has now been about 30 months and we still are
 no where closer to knowing what that “pay study” determined and how you
 will address the problems that it reportedly found. At the time we asked that
 the pay study just address the public safety employees as these were the areas
 where recruitment and retention were issues, but you decided to throw all the
 employees into the mix. I believe that because of your actions to include all
 employees in this study you have now found that the $10 million dollars that
 you set aside to address the issues is now nowhere close to the funding
 needed.
 At the last Commission Meeting some of you decided to table this problem until
 the new Chairman takes office in January 2017. Given the problems that you
 have reportedly found, this is understandable, as the identified pay raises and
 adjustments would be unsustainable without identifying some type of
 alternative funding or millage rate adjustments. However, these are just
 speculations based on bits of information that have been obtained since you
 have refused to release the pay study results and we are still waiting on a
 response to our open records request.
 As many of you know, recently Governor Deal announced a 26% pay raise for
 all sworn state law enforcement trooper, agents, and rangers in the State of
 Georgia. With SunTrust Park and The Battery Atlanta set to begin operations
 shortly, you need to take action immediately to address the steady losses of
 experienced & trained personnel from the public safety departments in Cobb
 County. I leave you tonight with our concern, if you do not begin to address
 the public safety issues and issues surrounding SunTrust Park, The Battery
 Atlanta, and the steady outward flow of sworn public safety staff from Cobb
 County, the citizens & visitors to this great County will be endanger of
 becoming victims to the increasing violence that we have seen moving into our
 County from surrounding areas. You need to act and you need to act NOW.

If you care to view his remarks they can be seen on the TV23 link below (select the correct meeting and then TAB 9 Public Comments):

http://cobbcounty.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=766&Itemid=439

Others lead, will we follow?

Recently Gov. Nathan Deal announced that he was giving all state sworn officers, about 3,300 total, an across the board 20% pay raise.  Gov. Deal stated, "It is incumbent upon the government to recruit and retain the best and the brightest, while equipping them with the training and resources they require."

You can see more on Gov. Deal's plan and statements here:
https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2016-09-08/deal-announces-major-law-enforcement-reform-package

The Gwinnett County government also recognizes the importance of retaining officers who have experience.  They too, recently announced a plan that is aimed towards retaining officers; especially those in the 3-8 years of service range.  The two major changes for Gwinnett is the addition of a master police officer classification that would include a 6% pay raise and a 6% pay raise for their detectives and accident investigators.

You can read more about Gwinnett's plan here:
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/gwinnett-offering-new-rank-pay-raises-for-law-enforcement/article_926dcfbf-5363-57f8-b296-6df139edbd0b.html

In years past, Cobb County, lead while others followed.  That is why we were able to attract the best and the brightest.  Too often now, we hear of yet another valuable experienced officer leaving to go to another metro-Atlanta department for better pay, better benefits, etc.  Will this continue to be the standard?  Will our county government take Gov. Deal's words to heart and take steps to recruit and retain the best?

Some of us are waiting to see if we are going to lead, follow or do nothing.  Meanwhile, others are growing tired of waiting and going elsewhere.

Kick the can on down the road....

Numerous officers wearing the blue Ducimus shirts poured into the Board of Commissioners meeting hoping that they would hear our concerns; that our department was in need.  

As a result of some of that effort, there was a Police Department Improvement Plan announced in August of 2014.  Additionally, a county wide pay and class study was to be conducted.  The results of that study was supposed to be available numerous times, but for one excuse or another was delayed.

There is still very little information being made available on the pay study.  The take home car program seems to have stalled; with only a few cars left to be equipped and distributed.  The cost of insurance has gone up, yet again.  The tide of officers leaving the department seems to be picking back up.

It seems that we are engaged in yet another game of kick the can down the road.  What is the motivation to that?  The problems are not just going to go away, they won't fix themselves and we won't forget that they exist.  It will take leadership and people making decisions and taking action to fix this.     

October 2016 Open Comment

This section is available for any topics officers and/or supporters of Cobb Officers wish to voice concern of: