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Peachtree

City Police Chief James Murray got some much-needed help

from the City Council last week in what has become one of

the tougher aspects of his job - recruiting and

hiring new officers.

Council

voted at its Jan. 6 meeting to bump up the starting pay

for some certified officers by nearly $3,000 a year,

correcting a deficiency that Murray said has been a great

hindrance in his recruiting efforts.

Murray

reported to city manager Jim Basinger in December that

his department in 1999 had its lowest number of

applicants in ten years, and the overall quality of those

applicants was far below what has been seen in the past.

"As of

this date [Dec. 9], we have five open positions for

police officer, with no qualified applicants meeting the

level of quality we desire for employment," Murray

said in his memo to Basinger. "This will preclude us

from hiring any police officers for the police academy

that starts in January 2000."

This has

happened despite the department spending more time in

recruitment in 1999 than ever before, Murray said. Those

efforts included 12 months of television advertisement,

job fairs at three colleges (Clayton State, Griffin Tech

and the Citadel), advertising in local newspapers as well

as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, personal contacts by

employees, and contacts made via the statewide police

academy and statewide college placement offices.

While a

number of factors have been mentioned as contributing to

this problem, the salary issue stands out. After 40

percent of the applicants are weeded out due to problems

with qualifications, employment history or criminal and

driving history, many of the ones who are left -

about 25 percent of the total - withdrew themselves

from consideration because they were hired by other

departments at higher salaries or simply found out what

Peachtree City was paying, Murray said.

Uncertified

officers have been receiving a starting salary of

$25,688. That figure rises to $26,989 for certified

officers, according to documents furnished by the city.

An

investigation of possible solutions to the pay problem

revealed that the starting salary for certified officers,

many of whom have college degrees, is not in line with

that being paid to paramedics with equal qualifications,

certification and education.

This has

been addressed with the creation of a new salary

structure that divides certified officers into two

categories - basic and advanced. Certified/basic

officers will still start at $26,989 upon hiring, while

those at the certified/advanced level will start at

$29,790.

To qualify

for the certified/advanced level, an officer will need

state certification and either an associate's degree and

one year of experience, or a bachelor's degree.

Murray

prefers to hire well-educated officers and hopes to be

able to attract more college-degreed candidates with the

new $29,790 salary, which is the current starting point

for a firefighter/paramedic.

The council

decision took effect Friday morning, and the city is

working immediately to take advantage of it.

"This

is encouraging. It's a good move forward," Murray

said earlier this week. "We actively recruit all the

time throughout the United States, and this will give us

a really good foothold to be successful."

Murray has

talked to leaders in other public safety departments in

the metro Atlanta area, and some of them have multiple

openings as well, as everyone is feeling the pinch of the

labor shortage and low unemployment rate.

"But

we should be getting the best candidates all the time, no

matter what the labor situation is," Murray said.

The city

will send out announcements to all police academies in

the state and many colleges in the region, but not just

those with criminal justice programs, as Murray wants to

see candidates from different academic backgrounds.

The

department is constantly competing against other

municipalities, as well as state and federal agencies.

Murray said he lost two of his sergeants to the Drug

Enforcement Administration just last year.

"It's

good we have the kind of candidates they want to

recruit," he acknowledged.

But Murray

says Peachtree City has some advantages the feds cannot

offer, like the opportunity to live and work in a

community without the threat of being uprooted and

transferred across the country every four or five years.

The appeal

of living and working in Peachtree City is balanced by

the fact that many other areas cost less to live in,

Murray said, so that must constantly be factored in also.

The overall

cost of the council decision last week was estimated at

$46,529 for the remainder of the FY2000 budget, to be

funded out of the council's contingency fund. But Murray

said the out-of-pocket cost is not as exorbitant when one

considers that those five officer positions, which were

provided for in the budget, remain unfilled.

The city

will look at the issue again at its April staff retreat.