Macon-Bibb to take wait-and-see approach after loss of 200-plus employees

Macon-Bibb County officials are taking a wait-and-see approach to determine how many employees it will hire in the wake of early retirement buyouts.

It could be a year before officials decide what steps to take in some departments. The direction of seven departments that lost its directors will receive input from recently appointed permanent heads as the county navigates the overall employee loss, county officials said.

In October, Macon-Bibb readjusted its fiscal 2016 budget by $2.9 million because of the savings from 235 retirements. On Tuesday, the County Commission named full-time directors for the departments of E-911, Animal Welfare, Recreation, Public Works, Emergency Management Agency, Facilities Management and the clerk of the commission.

"A lot of departments are cyclical in nature, especially things like the (Solid Waste Department), so really it takes one year of the ebb and flows of the season to see what's needed," Mayor Robert Reichert said. "Let's see if we can work things out and move slowly through this first-year cycle and give these department heads time to observe, reflect, and look and see."

Reichert said the county has lost a lot of experience, but the recently named department heads are examples of leaders ready to take over.

In many departments, the loss of various managers means others have or will step up to fill the void. Ultimately, the goal remains providing efficient services while having fewer employees, he said.

"We will miss the collective experience of the employees that retired," Reichert said. "We've lost institutional knowledge, hundreds if not in fact thousands of years collectively, but the bright spot is we have had a group of people waiting to move up who are ready, versed and capable of moving up in leadership in each department."

The retirements were part of an effort to reduce the government's budget by 20 percent that was mandated over a five-year period after consolidation began in January 2014. So far, the budget has been reduced by 18 percent, Macon-Bibb spokesman Chris Floore said.

"We're proud to say we are living up to and exceeding that expectation, and we're able to do that because of the directors and the staff of those departments stepping forward with ideas on how we can do this work and serve our community better," Floore said in an email.

Department heads will have the opportunity to request positions to be filled, which County Manager Dale Walker would review to determine how that affects the level of service and the budget, Floore said.

In October, the county began filling some of the jobs left vacant in the Bibb County Sheriff's Office and the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department.

The sheriff's office has made about five hires in the past couple of weeks as it strives to continue providing solid first-responder service after losing 55 employees overall, Sheriff David Davis said.

"Think of it as a football team with all of your seniors graduating and your coach has to recruit and rebuild for next season," he said.

One of the adjustments made because of the retirements is that certified law enforcement officers can be hired to go out on the road instead of having to work in the jail first, he said.

It could be spring before many of the promotions are made for the department.

"We have done some restructuring at command level to take into account so many majors and executive people leaving," said Davis, who also noted the loss of administrative positions.

The sheriff's office is using more overtime to make sure there are enough deputies to handle 911 calls.

"We've always been short since the beginning of consolidation," Davis said. "Our first (priority) is to have deputies on the line level to answer calls. We'll keep that at the forefront to make sure we do that."

To contact writer Stanley Dunlap, call 744-4623 or find him on Twitter@stan_telegraph.

This story was originally published December 6, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Macon-Bibb to take wait-and-see approach after loss of 200-plus employees ."