About 30 Fayette

County workers left Thursday's County Commission meeting with smiles on

their faces after the group unanimously approved a new pay plan that will

bump salaries up an average of 5.8 percent.

The increases

are in addition to the regular cost of living and merit increases approved

as part of the 2002 budget.

"This

is a worthy investment for the calibre and quality of employees that we

have," said Commissioner Linda Wells before casting her vote in the

matter. "It's the employees that keep Fayette County number one.

Developed by

consultants Management of America Inc., the plan would increase the county's

payroll by $1.27 million from the current $21.7 million. With benefits,

the total cost to the county will be almost $1.5 million a year, but the

current fiscal year is half over, so the effect in FY2002 will be $726,728.

The plan is effective Jan. 1.

The majority

of the increases 62 percent go to public safety positions. "They

determined that it's in those areas that we are under the market most

severely," said Mark Pullium, county finance director.

Commissioners

last year decided to hire Management of America to study salaries and

job classifications in surrounding counties after rejecting a similar

study conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

ARC's study,

which would have resulted in higher salary increases than the one now

under consideration, included all counties in the metropolitan Atlanta

area, and commissioners said they didn't think it was realistic to compare

Fayette's pay structure with those in Gwinnett, Fulton and other large

counties, or those too far away.

The idea of

such a study is to prevent too much turnover by keeping salaries competitive

with those in both government and private industry in surrounding areas.

The plan also

would change the way the annual raises are implemented, doing away with

the old "step" system in which workers were given small step

increases every year in addition to the COLA and merit increases.

"Every

position will now be classified in a range and the employee will move

through that range based on COLA and merit," said finance director

Pullium. The new system, he said, "will be easier to administer and

much less cumbersome."

Commission

Chairman Greg Dunn admitted that the pay adjustments will be a significant

cost to the county over $20 million in the next decade. "It's a substantial

investment we're making here tonight," he said.