Nov. 3—Smyrna's City Council approved a pay bump for its police officers this week, giving the city one of the highest entry-level salaries of any department in Cobb County.
The starting pay for a certified officer will now raise 8.5%, from $43,077 to $46,744, per City Administrator Joe Bennett. That places the department just above the Cobb County Police Department, which advertises a starting pay grade of $46,000.
Ahead of the vote, Mayor Pro Tem Tim Gould said the raises would make the city better able to compete with its municipal peers.
"Like many businesses and most cities, we're in a very competitive labor market and the next two items are meant to address that," Gould said.
As with Cobb County government and the city of Powder Springs, Smyrna is currently undertaking a broader compensation study of its salaries for all departments. But due to workforce shortages among police, the city asked the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government — which is overseeing the study — to target the department first.
The raises instituted Monday night will cost the city $243,965.
Out of 87 officers on the city payroll, Bennett told the MDJ last week, 35 would see pay range minimum raises. Another 66 will see adjustments to address salary compression — a problem whereby older officers are under compensated relative to newer officers, because their raises don't keep up with increases in starting salaries.
"Right now frankly, we're the lowest paid police department in the county, and we need to change that. I think our citizens would support that, and we're going to take action to make that happen," Gould added Monday night. "We want to make sure we're doing all we can on our side."
The council also approved another measure it hopes will get more money into the pockets of the city's workers: a so-called "sell back" for city employees with more time off hours accrued than they can use.
Per an issue sheet prepared by the city, Smyrna's workers have accrued a staggering amount of time off during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighty-three of them, unable to take vacation due to the pandemic and staffing shortages, have over 200 time-off hours. Some 236 employees have more than 80 hours accrued.
The city will now give those workers with more than 80 hours in the bank the opportunity to "sell" 40 of those hours back to the city, which will compensate them with cash. Should all the eligible employees take advantage of the program, it would cost the city around $250,000.
Gould called the measure "a creative way of helping folks who have not had an opportunity to use their vacation ... and turn that back in for compensation ... it's, again, a way to help everybody on an income level and get some money for Christmas or whatnot."