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The Official Legal Organ of DeKafb County, GA. Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chambiee, Clarks ton, Decatur, Doravllle, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Tucker and Stone Mountain.
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SECTION A: VOL 25 NO. 36
MARCH 3 -9,2016
500
DeKalb County’s Board of Commissioners passed the 2016 budget Feb. 25 which includes pay increases for police, fire, sanitation, watershed and E911 employees.
by Andrew Cauthen
Andrew@dekalbchamp.com
□
eKalb County
commissioners
voted 4-3 to
approve the
county’s 2016 budget of
$1.32 billion, which includes
$5.2 million in pay increases
for police, fire, 911,
sanitation and watershed
employees.
The salary raises, which
will affect approximately
2,800 employees, will go into
effect in May.
There will be a “4
percent across-the-board
increase for all employees in
these five departments,” said
interim DeKalb County CEO
Lee May during the Feb. 25
Board of Commissioners’
meeting.
A not-yet-complete
compensation study will
include new pay ranges
for county jobs, and for “a
number of employees, their
current pay will not even be
the minimum for that new
range,” May said.
For these employees,
the county plans to “move
their current pay up to the
minimum of that new range,”
May said. Some of these
employees will see their
pay increase as much as 15
percent.
May said the increases
would help address the
problems the county has in
retaining officers.
“We have too many
See Budget on Page 5A
Police personnel have been attending Board of Commissioners’
meetings for weeks, asking for salary increases. Photos by
Andrew Cauthen
Law enforcement task force arrests 129
DeKalb Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Joseph looks into a window while attempting to serve a
warrant during Operation Safe DeKalb. Photo by Andrew Cauthen
by Andrew Cauthen
Andrew@dekalbchamp.com
A task force of 18 law
enforcement agencies, headed by
the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office,
took a bite out of crime Feb. 22-26.
The effort resulted in 129
arrests.
“Our goal is the same goal
as the citizens of DeKalb County,
and that is to make sure that...
everybody feels safe in their
homes, communities, churches and
businesses,” said DeKalb County
Sheriff Jeffrey Mann. “I think this
has an impact on the crime in
DeKalb County and I think it serves
as a deterrent for individuals who
are committing crimes against our
residents.”
Partnering with the sheriff’s
office in Operation Safe DeKalb
2016 were the DeKalb County
Police Department and police
departments from the cities of
Atlanta, Brookhaven, Chambiee,
Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, and
Pine Lake; MARTA Police, DeKalb
District Attorney’s Office, DeKalb
Solicitor General’s Office, DeKalb
Probation Office, Department of
Community Supervision, Emory
Police Department, Georgia State
Patrol, DeKalb County Marshal’s
Office and U.S. Marshal’s Service.
To prepare for the operation,
“our warrant investigators several
months ago began looking at all of
the warrants. We actually put our
hands on 15,000 warrants,” Mann
said.
Deputies eliminated 3,000
warrants because the suspects
“were either deceased, the
warrant was recalled for some
reason, or they were incarcerated
somewhere,” Mann said.
“That left us with 12,000
warrants,” he said. “We looked
at those 12,000...to see which
ones we had the best intelligence
as to if we were able to locate
[the suspects], focusing on the
See Arrests on Page 5A
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