DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — More than 800 DeKalb County employees are taking early retirement and Channel Two Action News has learned some county commissioners are looking at ways to bring some of them back, at least temporarily.
They're concerned that the county is losing too much experience in critical areas to maintain certain service levels.
The county decided to use early retirements rather than layoffs as a way to fill a big budget gap. But some county commissioners told Channel 2 Action News reporter Richard Elliot that they were surprised so many took it.
"It did too well, actually. It really did," said District 1 Commissioner Elaine Boyer after Tuesday's commission meeting.
Channel 2 Action News filed an open records request to get a look at the list of early retirees. We found that among those opting to retire early are the directors of Finance, Human Resources, Facilities Management, the Medical Examiner's office and the office of Economic Development. We also learned that 163 public works employees are retiring along with 95 employees from police services, 92 workers from watershed management and 41 people from parks and recreation.
"When we saw over 800 people took early retirement, we were excited because it was an opportunity to reduce our staffing levels," said District 5 Commissioner Lee May. "But it was kind of discouraging because of the brain drain we were experiencing."
So May, Boyer and other commissioners are looking at ways the county can rehire critical people as temporary contract workers for just a percentage of their former salaries and no benefits. Boyer said that right now, the county is limited to how long it can employ retirees to just ten days or $10,000 a year. Commissioners are working with the county legal department to see if that can be extended or enhanced.
"We would not be rehiring all of them back," said May. "Just some critical people that we really need to maintain at least for the short run while the administration comes back with a true reorganization plan for the county."
DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis could not be reached for comment.
WSBTV
