Cobb Reporter

Cobb County officials are considering a plan that would see up to $20 million of the $147 million in federal funding injected into the community through the American Rescue Plan Act go toward filling a slew of public safety job openings. 

In a recent report by FOX 5 Atlanta, Cobb County spokesperson Ross Cavitt said county leaders are considering using federal money to fill job openings by increasing public safety salaries, paying retention bonuses and providing public safety with the tools to recruit more people.

"Across our public service agencies, police, sheriff, fire, 911 we have 260 vacancies," Cavitt told FOX 5 Atlanta.

Currently, all of the county’s public safety agencies have numerous openings, including the Cobb County Police Department, which has 83 vacancies of their 634 authorized positions, and the Cobb County Fire Department, which has 81 vacancies of their 752 authorized positions, FOX 5 reports.

According to the repair, the plan to use federal money to fill many of the empty posts also calls for entry level pay increases, with police pay going from $46,000 to $50,000, and fire and sheriff's deputies seeing their pay jump from $41,500 to $43,000 for E911 dispatchers.

With all the federal money required to be used in over two years, The Cobb County Commission is slating to meet soon to further discuss the plan, including taking a closer look at some of the hundreds of applications from various the agencies the country has recently received.