WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE ATLANTA FIRE DEPARTMENT?

Part 1

If you aren’t familiar with what is going on with the current fiasco in Atlanta Fire, you can find it here. If you don’t want to click the link, here is the short term. 

Atlanta Fire Lt. Shomari Owens is facing termination after, according to the Atlanta Firefighters Union, he was retaliated against for publicly requesting back pay. Owens had informed the Atlanta City Council in August 2024 that he had been paid as a firefighter for five years despite serving as a sergeant. The union states that after his public plea to the city council for approximately $50,000 in owed wages, the fire chief filed two charges against him and subsequently issued a dismissal letter. The union is now demanding that Owens be fully compensated, have the charges dropped, and be reinstated. Now he has to appeal and wait. 

Now, let’s learn about the Fire Chief.

Current Atlanta Fire Chief Roderick Smith retired in 2023, on a salary of $190,000. Let’s assume that’s a $142,000 pension payout for the rest of his life. Pretty good, but he was the Fire Chief for a large metropolitan area, the City of Atlanta. Seems pretty typical. But he is still the fire chief. How is this possible if he retired in 2023? Well, that is thanks to Atlanta City Charter Section 3-505(b), which allows for the act known as “recapture”. What is that, you ask?

“The mayor and council may authorize the engagement of sworn public safety personnel retired under any of the pension laws, notwithstanding the age of such person, to render public safety services either as an independent contractor or as an employee. Such contracts, or employment,shall not be subject to the aforementioned 520 business day limitation. Such sworn employees shall be entitled to receive their regular pension payments but shall acquire no further pension or civil service rights by virtue of such temporary contractual arrangement, or employment…”

What does that mean? In layman’s terms, the city can decide to hire you back on a contract while you are earning a pension. So, what would the cost be to recapture the retired fire chief? Well, thanks to Atlanta City Council records, we know that Roderick Smith got a raise! That’s right, on top of the sweet retirement check, the recaptured contract rate is $230,000. That is right. The city of Atlanta residents and taxpayers are currently paying over $370,000 for the “expertise” of the retired fire chief. 

Wow, that must be an unbelievable amount of “knowledge, skills, ability, and expertise.” In comparison, the FDNY fire chief, who oversees the largest department in the country, earned $242,000. The FDNY has over 16,000 operating out of 217 fire stations and serves a population of over 8 million residents, including visitors. Atlanta? 1,100 total employees, 35 stations, and a population of over half a million. That’s a lot of numbers. Let me simplify

The Atlanta Fire Chief makes over $100,000 more to manage a department 1/10th the size. 

And yet, the ride up pay, also part of the city charter, is unavailable to pay Lt Owens? Hmmm…Surely, if only some funds were allocated to bloated salaries in other places. Surely, there aren’t any other chiefs on the recapture contract who are also making exorbitant salaries… See you for part 2!