17 retirees, $1.15 million: Atlanta weighs police-department rehires

Atlanta is weighing 17 separate authorizations to re-employ Police Department retirees in extra-help jobs without benefits. Together, their proposed salary ceilings add up to $1,151,786.86—not an estimate of annual payroll or a record of money already spent.⁠[1]

The job list reaches well beyond patrol. Six retirees would be employed as data/reporting analysts. Charles Long, identified as a retired police sergeant, is among them; Michael Willis, a retired senior officer, would be a training specialist. Other proposed roles include safety and training officers, a customer-service supervisor and a reserve-program coordinator.⁠[1]

Three proposals involve retirees the resolutions identify as assigned to E-911: Tracy Graham would be re-employed as a communications dispatcher, Shirley Lewis as a telecommunications manager and Gregory Haynes as an IT manager.⁠[1]

The individual salary caps range from $44,286.17 for administrative assistant Chanqueata Pitts to $80,594.95 apiece for Lewis and Haynes. The resolutions specify extra-help employment without benefits but do not label those amounts as annual salaries.⁠[1]

The measures invoke Charter Section 3-505(a), which the resolutions describe as allowing the city to tap a retiree’s particular skills for no more than 520 business days across one or more periods of employment. That limit should not be read as a guaranteed appointment length.⁠[1]

The packet lists full City Council consideration as pending for Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. It also lists Public Safety and Legal Administration Committee consideration for Oct. 12, but the records reviewed do not establish what the committee did. The upcoming Council entry is a scheduled checkpoint—not a guaranteed vote or evidence that the re-employments have been approved.⁠[1]