Gwinnett’s proposed 2020 budget includes performance-based raises for county employees — but not the additional cost of living increases that have been offered in previous years.
Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash unveiled her budget proposal in a Tuesday morning presentation to department heads and fellow commissioners. The proposal, which could be tweaked before it’s adopted in January, would set the county’s operating and capital budgets at a total of $1.83 billion.
That would represent an increase of about $7 million over Gwinnett's 2019 adopted budget.
For the third straight year, Nash’s proposed budget includes 4% pay-for-performance raises for employees who get satisfactory marks on their annual reviews. It does not, however, include the 3% across-the-board pay bumps offered in recent years.
“That’s certainly something that’s up for discussion among board members,” Nash said. “It costs a lot of money to do even 1% for a 5,000-person organization, but I can assure you that we know full well that we’ve got competition (to hire and keep employees) across the board now.”
The proposed budget includes money to create and fill 166 of the 297 new positions requested by various departments. A continued emphasis on public safety and the justice system means 36 Gwinnett County police positions, 18 firefighter-paramedics, and staffing associated with a new Superior Court judge are among the new positions.
The new police positions would bring the agency’s authorized staffing to about 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents. The goal is 1.3.
Funding is also included to staff an auxiliary emergency-911 center at the new Bay Creek Police Precinct, which is scheduled to open next month near Grayson. The proposed budget also includes money for the creation of a "real-time crime center," a central location where analysts could collect data from things like call logs, camera systems and license plate readers to provide officers responding to incidents as much information as possible, as quickly as possible.
“Gwinnett continues to grow and we have to grow with it,” Gwinnett police chief Tom Doran said.
A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held Dec. 12. Comments can also be submitted here.
By law, a budget will be adopted by the county commission on Jan. 7, its first meeting of the new year.
Other notable items included in the proposed budget:
- $1 million to address homelessness
- Money for the development of a "Gwinnett entrepreneur center"
- About $14 million to update existing technology and improve cybersecurity
- Funding for the continued development of "Water Tower at Gwinnett," a research, training and business incubator previously referred to as the water innovation center
- Funding for a number of transit-related projects, including a new park-and-ride lot at Ga. 316 and Harbins Road; expansion of the existing Gwinnett Place transit center; and the exploration of a bus rapid transit corridor along I-85
- Funding to extend the Ivy Creek Greenway and to create a new Beaver Ruin Park
- Pay increases for county poll workers
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