Sandy Springs department heads want to add 17 full-time workers to the city’s payroll, bringing the total to 637 employees in the FY2025 proposed budget.
Part-time seasonal positions would increase from 75 in the current fiscal year to 102 in next year’s budget, according to figures presented to the Sandy Springs City Council at its April 30 budget workshop. Positions funded by Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) would remain at 11.
Sandy Springs Police Chief Ken DeSimone told the city council he wanted to hire five new employees. They would include two patrol officers, one sergeant, a civilian Georgia Crime Information Center specialist, and a property and evidence clerk. The clerk now works part-time, and the position would shift to full-time.
He said National Guard service and accidents have taken their toll on the officers available for duty.
“We’ve had two officers out on long-term disability because of car wrecks,” DeSimone said. “One got hit by a car and one was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer, and so they’re still out.”
Sandy Springs Fire Department Chief Keith Sanders wants to add two staff members, a community paramedic officer, and a systems data administrator.
The community paramedic won’t be a firefighter and won’t answer fire calls, Sanders said. The person hired will address the users of the 911 system who don’t need to go to the hospital but need to be in contact with a physician. This work aims to reduce the number of those calls by educating these users.
The city’s Facilities Department wants to hire three staff members – a building maintenance technician and mail clerk/security staff member for the police department headquarters, and a building maintenance tech for Recreation and Parks.
Public Works Director Marty Martin wants to hire a traffic signal engineer and a utility operations coordinator.
The workload in supporting the Traffic Management Center has increased significantly, Martin said. Radar speed feedback signs, traffic signal flashers, an increase from 22 miles to 43 miles for a fiber optic network system across the city, and vehicle preemption controls that enable emergency vehicles to change the lights of traffic signals to green are among the 160 devices deployed across Sandy Springs for traffic management. Martin also said that 816 closed circuit cameras monitor across the traffic network.
Recreation and Parks Director Brent Walker told the city council that the department wanted to stay with 12 full-time employees and 50 part-time workers.
Create Sandy Springs, the agency that runs the performing arts center and events for the city, plans to stick with its 27 full-time employees. Executive Director Bill Haggett said they want an increase from 13 to 40 part-time employees to reduce the hours full-time staff has to spend at events.
City Manager Eden Freeman said the Information Technology Department needs a senior web developer and a security administrator. If added, that would increase the IT full-time employee count to 21.
To become proactive instead of reactive, Freeman said the Communications Department wants to add a social media specialist, bringing it to eight employees. Her own office needs a director of data strategy and analytics. This position would direct the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and put controls in place, as well as coordinate all the city’s data sources.
