Fight for Police Raises Not Over

The battle to beef up the DeKalb County police budget is moving into the next phase.

And Police Chief Terrell Bolton is leading the charge, after failing on Tuesday, once again, to convince county commissioners to come up with more cash for the cops ? for four percent pay raises (for police officers, firefighters, and all others who wear a badge), and for new equipment such as Tasers and dashboard video cameras that a special Grand Jury declared the officers should have.

Homeowners across DeKalb County are following the chief into battle.

"We had cars broken into in our driveway," said Terri Fischer of Stone Mountain, "the police responded very quickly."

Fischer and her grown daughter, Sheila Cocchi, are lifelong residents of DeKalb County, but only recently decided they needed to help Chief Bolton try to convince the county commission to approve the pay raise.

And when asked if they've become "activists," they both laughed.

"We've been called that," Cocchi said.

"We've been called that by one of the commissioners, recently," Fischer said, "and I didn't know whether to take it as an insult or a complement, but I guess it's a complement."

They and others like them are new to the world of DeKalb County politics -- encouraged to get involved by Chief Bolton. He has been going to neighborhood associations and civic clubs, aggressively campaigning for support, and transforming homeowners, taxpayers ? voters ? into activists for his department.

"I have never seen anybody try to put forth a grassroots movement like he's done, to involve the citizens to help the police department," Cocchi said. "I'm sure he has his critics within the police department and outside the police department, but from what we've seen as citizens, I think it's a very noble thing that he's doing, trying to get people involved."

Among Bolton's critics are the commissioners who are usually at odds with the commission's presiding officer, the man who hired Bolton, DeKalb County C.E.O. Vernon Jones.

For example, Commissioner Burrell Ellis, who is leaving the commission this year in order to run for the seat Jones is leaving due to term limits, was actually able, last month, to pass a pay raise for officers, but Jones vetoed it.

Burrell tried again on Tuesday to pass it, but failed. Burrell's plan is to give four percent pay raises to all sworn officers ? including police, fire fighters and Sheriff's deputies. He wants to fund the raises by cutting what he considers to be waste in county government ? a cut of 1.25 percent from the budgets of non-public-safety operations of county government.

Jones says county government has already been cut to the bone.

But Burrell points to the recent audit that revealed $17 million worth of overspending on contracts, in a random sample.

"We've identified that waste," Burrell said Tuesday, "and the auditors told us that that's just the tip of the iceberg?. We can provide for the raises?. And we can do that without raising taxes and without cutting services, and we can do that this year."

Another commissioner, Jeff Rader, wants to limit the pay raises, targeting which officers would get them.

"A four-percent, across-the-board pay increase is excessive and wasteful for certain classes of officers," Rader said Tuesday.

"I can't be a rubber stamp for anybody," including Chief Bolton, Rader told 11Alive News during a break in Tuesday's commission meeting. "That's my role in this process. I don't know how you would be able to stand up to your constituents and say, 'I'm doing my job,' unless I check the facts and unless I run the numbers, and unless I make an informed decision" and be a tight-fisted steward of the taxpayers' dollars.

Commissioner Larry Johnson's idea is to increase the millage rate by .21, in order to raise, for the rest of 2008, $3.1 million for raises for police officers, and for the sworn personnel in fire and rescue. Johnson also has a companion plan that would raise the millage rate to at least .27, in order to raise $4.2 million for the rest of 2008, which would fund raises for all other sworn personnel such as Sheriff's deputies, in addition to police officers and firefighters and rescue workers.

According to Johnson's figures, the owner of a $300,000 home, for example, would pay between $20 and $30 more in property taxes this year.

That's fine with Fischer and Cocchi.

"I understand we're in a recession," Cocchi said. "And nobody likes to pay taxes. But the police officers that we're trying to support, they're paying the same amount for gas that we are paying for gas. They're paying the same amount for groceries, and to put their kids in school just like we are."

Most outrageous to these two, new "activists" for the police: the shooting deaths, in January, of two, DeKalb County officers, killed while the officers were moonlighting to make ends meet.

Even that attack on police has not broken the political logjam on the commission.

"It's atrocious that the police department and the citizens of the county are being held hostage, basically, by a board of commissioners that can't agree," Cocchi said.

They are two of the outspoken voices for DeKalb County police officers, hoping to convince the county commission to find a compromise, and reminding themselves that this is, after all, an election year, for four of the seven commission seats ? the seats now held by Elaine Boyer, Burrell Ellis, Kathie Gannon and Lee May.

"I hope that the noise will be loud enough," Cocchi said, without specifying any commissioner, "that we really need to make some changes come November."