Fulton County commissioners lifted a longstanding cap Wednesday on extra pay for local Department of Family & Children Services employees.
During the commission’s public comment period, 10 Fulton DFCS employees urged lifting the cap, including Kristen Toliver, interim director of the Fulton DFCS office.
Fulton case managers get $500 extra per year, while in other counties they get $2,000, she said.
“I’m not asking for any more money. We have money in our budget,” Toliver said, adding that there is $500,000 remaining in the office’s annual budget that can be used for increased pay supplements.
Commissioner Natalie Hall proposed allowing higher supplemental pay in Fulton County.
In 1966 the county authorized salary supplements for Fulton DFCS “to help alleviate chronic staff turnover and to attract and retain employees,” but those were discontinued for new employees around 1996, according to her resolution.
Supplements were restored in 2018, but limited to no more than 13% of the Fulton DFCS annual budget. Hall proposed removing that cap, instead having county commissioners set the amount for salary supplements each year.
Hall said Fulton DFCS employees could be classified as the “working poor,” not making a living wage, given Fulton’s high cost of living compared to other Georgia counties. Eliminating the cap would not cost the county anything extra, since the supplement money would come from the standard DFCS budget, she said.
Commissioner Bridget Thorne tried unsuccessfully to keep a cap but raise it to 40% of the local DFCS budget.
Commissioners Khadija Abdur-Rahman and Dana Barrett signed on as resolution cosponsors. It passed 5-0, drawing cheers from the crowd, with Chairman Robb Pitts and Vice Chair Bob Ellis absent from the vote.
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