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CEO hoping to save inspectors’ jobs
by Jonathan Cribbs
jonathan@dekalbchamp.com
DeKalb County’s Development Department has 107 employees, county officials said June 15.
Now, they may have to essentially halve that and save as many people as they can at the same time.
“That’s the department where activity has drastically decreased,” a county official said.
County CEO Burrell Ellis has to cut the department’s staff to 45 employees by June 23, the next time the county commission meets. Eight employees from the department have already received transfers to other county positions, and county officials say they believe they’ve found another 35 positions department employees will be able to transfer into or compete for.
It was the latest announcement in an effort to save the struggling department that began June 5 when Ellis abruptly stopped planned layoffs, claiming he had not signed off on them. Shortly before a county commission Budget, Finance and Audit Committee meeting on June 9, Ellis also told department employees he had hatched a plan to save a good number of their jobs – keeping half of them by increasing taxes by $2.7 million with an additional $1 million specifically to the development department.
The on-the-spot announcement irritated commissioners.
“I am disappointed that the board of commissioners was not briefed before the information was presented to the committee,” said Commissioner Connie Stokes, who also chairs the budget committee and has been adamant about not increasing taxes this year. “In facing such financial challenges, the board and the administration need to work more collaboratively towards a solution. In these tough economic times, we cannot be too quick to raise taxes. We have to explore all options and make necessary cuts to balance the budget.”
Commission Chairman Larry Johnson also protested the plan.
“A tax increase is not a proposal that the board of commissioners is willing to take now or in the immediate future,” he said.
The layoff talks are the result of an unexpected decrease in permitting fees, which pay for the development department. County officials expected to receive about $8.2 million permitting fee revenue based on last year’s numbers. Now, they’re expecting approximately half that, county officials said.
Other county departments are funded with local taxes, and they’re not subject to fluctuations in permitting fee revenue. After the county settled a lawsuit the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association filed in 2000, the development department was set up differently. The association’s lawsuit claimed the county owed it $30 million in refunds for overcharging on permits. The county settled the suit for $1.6 million.
But, as a result, the county placed the development department into a special funding category that ties it to permitting fees, putting the department’s workforce at the mercy of fluctuations in permit fees paid for by developers.
How Ellis and the commission will resolve the layoff talks is unclear. An online report on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Web site on June 16 claimed six development department employees had been laid off that morning, including the county’s chief inspector. County officials did not confirm that, however.
Commissioner Elaine Boyer suggested the county may want to turn the inspection process over to the developers, forcing them to hire their own certified inspectors, negating the need for a county development department.
“I don’t see the housing market – from years of doing this – picking up anytime soon,” she said.
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