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City mulls pay raises for police, fire

July 22, 2020–11:39 a.m.

STAFF REPORTS

Rome Police officers and firefighters could be getting a pay raise.

The Rome Public Safety Committee is recommending the raises to help with recruitment and retention of officers and firefighters.

Currently, the Rome Police Department has 14 vacant positions while the fire department has four.

The last pay adjustment for police was in 2014.

The recommendation is to raise the salary for non-certified police recruits to $38,000 and to $39,000 for certified with no experience.

Certified officers with at least a year of experience would be paid $40,000 a year.

The current salaries are $32,000 to $34,000, which is lower than surrounding municipalities.

For instance, the City of Calhoun’s average salary for officers is just over $39,000 while it is nearly $37,000 in Cartersville.

The raises could help alleviate another concern as the city invests in the training of new officers then loses some of those officers to other police departments that pay better.

In 2019, six officers took jobs with other agencies.

The total 2020 budget impact of the proposed pay increases are close to $239,000 for police and nearly $408,000 for fire.

The proposal will go to the full Rome City Commission during their Monday night meeting.