MARIETTA — With a little more than 24 hours left in an eight-year tenure as Cobb County Chairman, Sam Olens sat down with Journal editors on Monday to talk about where the county has come from, where he sees it going and his political aspirations as he begins in earnest his campaign for Georgia’s attorney general.

Olens said he is probably most proud of the county’s conservative budgeting over the years, and of improvements in public safety.

Olens said he believes Cobb is far better positioned to deal with the economic downturn than any other major jurisdiction in metro Atlanta, such as DeKalb and Fulton counties.

“We’ve done far better to date. We didn’t have the fat those governments had before, and that’s really protected us a lot in this process. It seems to me that, based on the success of the early retirement, that short of the commercial sector taking a huge hit, that we should actually be OK. I didn’t say fine, but OK. We’ll have reasonable reductions, but I don’t see the closing days of parks and libraries that others are doing,” Olens said. “From the time we removed merit (pay increases) and did the hiring freeze and told our employees we would try the best we can for no furloughs or layoffs, they’ve done everything we’ve asked. They’ve stepped up to the plate and done an excellent job.”

Olens said he does not anticipate layoffs or furloughs in the county’s future, though crunching the budget numbers is not getting any easier.

Some of the immediate challenges Olens sees coming for the county are a dramatic reduction in the tax digest, commercial foreclosures, and the loss of many experienced workers taking the retirement incentive.

“The digest went down last year, but that was the first time it’s gone down. We anticipate a 10 percent reduction in the digest with the changes that we’ve made. With a little luck, I think it will be stable after this year,” Olens said.

“We’re starting to see an improvement in the residential; I think the real issue is commercial. Some of the banks seem to be not calling commercial loans if they’re paying the monthly note, versus we saw banks calling the residential loans even when folks were paying based on new appraisals, so we’re not seeing that hit. And, frankly, it never should have hit with residential. A lot depends on what happens with commercial. Let’s hope it’s three (years) when we get back to normal, and not more. I’m not seeing any signs of uptick,” Olens said.

The lump-sum retirement incentive offered this year to about 400 county workers is working, Olens said. The county had expected about 140 people to take advantage of the incentive. But so far, 214 employees have signed up, and Olens said he expected a few more applicants before today’s 5 p.m. deadline.

Employees who age plus years of service equal 80 are eligible for a one-time lump sum payment if they retire now. Although the incentive could cost the county about $1 million this year, Olens said, the benefits will be realized in years to come, when those employees are no longer on the payroll.

About one-third of those taking the incentive are public safety workers, and those will require replacements. But the new employees will likely earn significantly less than the current employees.

“You will see promotions occur to cover higher level positions, but hopefully you will not see a lower level individual hired so that the workforce will have a significant reduction as a result of this. … We’ve been real pleased with it. The incentive that we offered was significantly less than Gwinnett’s. Theirs was a much richer incentive package than we did. And having said that, I think our package was fair. It was a good package for our employees. It costs money this year, but it provides the significant reduction the next couple of years thereafter,” Olens said.

Good communication has been a major component of the success of the county and among the board of commissioners, he said.

“Mickey (Lloyd) has done a fantastic job as our public safety director. The initiatives such as quality of life that he went along with such as when we merged code enforcement with police has paid big dividends, and needs to pay more in the future,” he said. “And I don’t know when the working relationship between public safety and the sheriff has ever been better. They openly work together. Do they still disagree? Yeah, they’re supposed to. That’s life. But the working relationship between police, fire and the sheriff is huge.”

“When three people were killed at Penske and we caught the guy before he even left the area, that wasn’t happenstance. That was the working relationship between the municipal police departments, the county police department, the sheriff and (Georgia State Patrol). They’ve got the action where they give the order and everyone flocks to that area. It wasn’t coincidental. It’s due to those working relationships that are stronger than ever,” Olens said.

Communication is also essential among the board of commissioners, Olens said.

“We spend a lot of time, the county manager and myself, with the district commissioners, keeping them apprised of issues so that there aren’t surprises at meetings and asking them for their input, and revising the agenda items before it ever comes to the board so that we’re more efficient,” Olens said.

“By the time it goes into the agenda book, there’s already been a series of meetings,” he said. “Every district commissioner has town-hall meetings. That’s excellent. They go to a lot of community events, and that’s excellent. No government’s perfect, no government’s going to be perfect, but communication is key.”

Olens, a Republican, is seeking to become the state’s Attorney General. His first test will be in the Republican primary, where he’ll face at least one challenger: Macon attorney Max Wood. The general election is Nov. 2.

Olens said he would make clear that his priorities for the office are different from those of Thurbert Baker, a Democrat who now holds the office, and said he would aim for a style similar to that of Mike Bowers, who was attorney general in the 1980s and 1990s. Baker is running for governor.

“Ethics is going to be front and center, along with public corruption. For instance, when the Cobb School District acknowledged having 50 some-odd illegal votes in executive session, I can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be a consent order at a minimum following that acknowledgement, rather than nothing,” Olens said.

As for leaving his current office, Olens said it’s simply time.

“I’m not leaving out of any ill feelings,” Olens said. “I’m a big fan of term limits, and I would support eight-year term limits for everyone. While the economy takes its ups and downs, it’s time for new blood in the chairman’s office. There comes a point where you get too comfortable in a position, and the public deserves more than that.”