MARIETTA, Ga. — Police and fire departments across metro Atlanta are practically begging for people to come work for them and fill vacancies that, if left unfilled, are potentially putting their residents at risk.
Wednesday night, firefighters in Marietta let the City Council know that the city could be losing veterans to other cities.
The reason, they say, is they can’t count on getting pay raises, even after decades of service.
Earlier this year, the City Council approved raises of 9% for new firefighters.
Veterans crowded into the City Council meeting frustrated, saying that, yes, the newer firefighters need the higher pay, but veterans end up making less in some cases.
“I didn’t start the job for the money,” retired Marietta firefighter Ron Presley told 11Alive after the meeting. “I didn’t really care about the money, but you have to live on something.”
Presley became a firefighter after 9/11, and just retired from the Marietta Fire Department after 20 years. When he retired he said he was making only $18.40 an hour.
“I was here 20 years,” he said, “and you had guys that were here six years that were making more than I. So, the pay scale’s just kind of all screwed up right now.”
Firefighters told the Council that the department has not implemented a structured pay scale, based on years of service and promotions, but instead bases promotions and raises subjectively.
“There’s no choice but to offer (raises) to the new hires, or you won’t get any,” said retired Marietta Fire Captain Merv McDonald. “But you’re shortchanging the ones that have been here. Veteran firefighters and the newly hired firefighters, their salaries are just within a few hundred dollars of each other, in some cases.”
Marietta resident Donald Barth, who attended the meeting, rose to speak after listening to the firefighters. He was angry, saying the city should be implementing the pay scales recommended by the consultants that the city hired or the veterans will leave.
“We’re going to lose them to other departments,” Barth told 11Alive after the meeting, “because we can’t pay adequate salaries for people. We don’t even know what they’re making because it’s up to the Fire Chief? Wrong answer.”
“They’re not asking for free money,” McDonald said of the veteran firefighters. “They’re saying, look, we’ve put in the time, we’ve put in the training, we’ve put in the blood sweat and tears, and just because maybe we’re not you’re friend or I’m not you’re most popular, why did I not get the raise somebody else got?”
City Council members listened to the firefighters, then adjourned the meeting without comment.
The firefighters said they’ll be back at the next council meeting to try to enlist the council’s help, to implement structured pay scales that allow Marietta firefighters to plan their careers knowing the salary ranges they can expect as they earn their seniority and promotions.