Jim Pehrson, assistant comptroller for Cobb, first presented the final amended FY10 budget on Aug. 11. Although no new positions will be created or filled, Pehrson said the proposed budget will not result in any reduction in services, elimination of filled positions, furloughs or pay cuts. Pehrson attributed this to County Manager David Hankerson's suggestions that all vacant positions be eliminated and that each department watch its overtime more closely.
The proposed FY10 budget has revenue and expenditures balanced at $331,907,348. That is a decrease of $17,926,904, or 5.13 percent, from revenue and expenditures in FY09's budget, which were $349,844,252.
The budget will not allot room for the creation of new jobs, however, and all county employees will have to pay more over the next four years for retirement pensions and health care.
The Cobb Police Department's Reserve Police Program is expected to be approved by the board. The program will allow retired Cobb County police officers who volunteer their time to relieve active duty officers of administrative tasks with no cost to taxpayers.
Retired officers with at least 15 years of service to the county, able to pass the same training requirements as full-time officers and are willing to commit at least 16 hours of service per month, will be eligible.
Cobb County Director of Public Safety Mickey Lloyd said the most recently retired officers who are interested in the program will be considered first, as those cops will be better prepared for the training because they know most of the legal and policy changes that have occurred over the past few years and will be more physically able to pass the required exams.
The program will consist of two paid part-time reserve officers to coordinate the program. The two positions will be moved from currently unfilled administrative part-time positions available in the police department.
Some of the duties the reserve officers could perform include patrol car servicing, guest services, phone reports, large event staffing, traffic direction and investigation of property related crimes, such as robberies and trespassing.
Additionally, the retired officers could wait with detainees while they are given hospital treatment.
The Marietta City Council in August approved a proposal from Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn to start taking more prisoners to the Smyrna Jail rather that the Cobb Jail, because often at the Cobb Jail, nurses send arrested people to the hospital. And if that person is sent to the hospital, the arresting officer goes too, which takes officers off the streets and ties them up for hours, Flynn said.
Concerned residents and business owners will be given a second chance to voice their opinions on proposed changes to the county's sign and billboard ordinances. Afterward, the board could vote on them.
Cobb County outlawed any further construction of billboards in 1988, and no additional billboards have been built since, said Rob Hosack, Cobb's development director. Under the code amendments, he said businesses would face stricter codes on the level of brightness of electronic signs outside of local businesses, as well as the frequency they can change.
"We'll also basically be trying to incentivize businesses to tear down billboards that may not be needed by allowing them to build one electronic billboard in exchange for removing three existing billboards," Hosack said.
Chairman Sam Olens addressed some concerns with the sign ordinances during the Aug. 25 board meeting, specifically with the type of illumination that may be permitted for digital signs.
"Words are not the issue; animation is. Some animations are distracting to drivers. By definition, studies have shown that these are a distraction, and with text messaging and all other distractions going on, we don't want drivers running off the road or into other cars because they are distracted by a nearby sign," he said.
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