OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Clayton County Performance Reviews Day Two: February 12, 2026

Board of Commissioners — Thursday, February 12, 2026
BodyClayton County, Georgia
SessionBoard of Commissioners
DateThursday, February 12, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:06:31

Transcript — Verbatim
0:06

So good morning, citizens of Clayton County, and I was my pleasure to welcome you to day two of the Clayton Performance Reviews.

0:12

My name is Landry Merkison, and I have the pleasure of serving as the Deputy Chief Operating Officer for the Clayton County Board of Commissioners.

0:19

Just as a reminder, our Clayton Performance Reviews is an opportunity for our department leadership to come before you and their colleagues to report out on their performance measurements and what their progress has been throughout fiscal year 25 for quarters two and for quarter three.

0:37

So today you'll hear from half of our leadership.

0:39

As I said, this is day two, so the other half went yesterday.

0:43

And they'll update you on their progress to date as well as provide us with any challenges and obstacles that they see moving forward.

0:51

As we move through today's presentations, if anyone has any questions, citizens can feel free to send their questions to CPR questions at Clayton County GA.gov.

1:03

And we will make sure that we route those to the appropriate leadership, and they will get a response to you.

1:09

So without further ado, it is my pleasure to welcome our first presenter up this morning, Chief Kevin Roberts from Clayton County Police Department.

1:15

Chief Greetings on behalf of the Clayton County Police Department.

1:29

And as we talk about the police department, who are we?

1:32

We're an agency that serves and protects all citizens with excellence, and we do that through partnership and collaboration by reviewing statistical information.

1:42

The first goal I want to talk about is our vacancy rate.

1:45

As a department, we've set a goal of maintaining the vacancy rate below 15%.

1:50

And as you look at the presentation, you will see in quarters two and three, we have met that goal, and we're on track.

1:56

Quarter two, we maintain a vacancy rate of 10.8%.

2:00

In quarter three, we maintain a vacancy rate of 12.9%.

2:05

Under the quality of life pillar, one of our main goals is to reduce our pedestrian fatalities by 5%.

2:12

We see some disruption in this area as we've seen an increase in our year-to-date fatalities.

2:20

Our pedestrian fatalities increased by 45% from 11 to 16, and our vehicular fatalities increase by 23% from 13 to 16.

2:32

To put it in perspective from a quarterly review, our quarter two saw a hundred percent increase in vehicular fatalities from four to eight, and pedestrian fatalities increased from four to six, which was a 50% increase.

2:47

Quarter three, we saw our vehicular fatalities decrease back to four, which was a hundred percent decrease, and our pedestrian fatalities saw no change as we had six.

3:00

We'll talk about how we can uh reduce those numbers a little bit later in the presentation.

3:07

We also have made it a goal under the professional growth and management pillar to ensure that your personnel are adequately trained.

3:16

We established the goal of having 24 training events throughout the year.

3:20

We're on track to meet that goal, and during quarter two, we provided four training opportunities in the form of three training bulletins and one video for our RMS, which is our records management system.

3:33

It's the system that officers use to complete our reports and store that information as well.

3:38

In quarter three, we provided seven training opportunities in the form of three training bulletins and four videos as our technology is always trained, changing.

3:49

Challenges and proposed solutions.

3:55

This relates also our first challenge relates to our professional growth pillar in the county, attrition and retirements.

4:02

We've entered a window within our department where we're seeing a lot of our seasoned veterans move towards retirement, which is a good thing for them, but not so much for the agency as we are young and we lose a lot of knowledge and experience with these retirements.

4:17

So how are we overcoming that or trying to overcome that challenge through additional training?

4:22

Well I mean by training is I've started a transition policy to where when I know a seasoned employees is about to retire, I'm finding their replacement early and telling them at least 30 days out.

4:37

This employees are retiring.

4:39

I intend to promote you in 30 days.

4:41

I need you to start transitioning with that leader so we don't lose all of that great knowledge out of the door.

4:47

We're also taking a different approach through our volunteers and police services program.

4:51

It's an opportunity for our citizens to come volunteer their time at the police department in places where we won't have to assign a sworn or non-sworn employees.

5:01

And finally, our reserve security officers are composed of those retirees who want to come back to the police department and offer their services in a part-time capacity, such as investigations, our statistical unit, and our community affairs unit.

5:16

And we've seen success.

5:18

I've not been able to get them all back, but I'm working on them.

5:21

As far as our mandate process, the state agency for training has increased the period of mandate.

5:28

They have doubled it from 400 hours to 800, which presents a challenge in training because we need an additional facility to have an overlapping training class, but through partnerships with the Office of Resiliency and Parks and Rec.

5:43

We have an opportunity to provide a temporary facility to complete our training and get those folks trained up to par.

5:50

Lastly, we talked about the fatalities.

5:53

All of that is good police work.

5:54

We've added folks to our traffic unit.

5:56

We'll be doing directed patrols in the key areas to reduce those numbers.

6:02

I just want to take a quick moment to talk about a real-time crime center.

6:06

Those are the folks that use our cameras in the county to investigate crimes, and you see here that they have assisted with 427 investigations over two quarters, two and three.

6:16

And what's key is they're helping city and county agencies.

6:22

Future initiatives, short term.

6:25

We'll continue to engage the community with our neighborhood watch meetings, our coffee with the chief or chat with the chief in the evening.

6:32

We'll continue to participate in our full-scale public safety critical incident exercise in partnership with the Office of Resiliency.

6:40

Look for gun safe distribution events through our social media platforms.

6:45

I spoke to you about our VIPS program, volunteers and police services.

6:49

We're looking for volunteers.

6:51

You will have to complete our Citizens Police Academy to participate, but I welcome you.

6:55

And of course, that directed traffic enforcement to reduce our fatality numbers.

7:00

Long term, we're working to expand that real-time crime center footprint.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Safety██████████████████18%
Personnel Matters████████████12%
Library Services███████████11%
Technology and Innovation██████████10%
Emergency Management██████████10%
Procedural████████8%
Affordable Housing████████8%
Youth Programs██████6%
Zoning And Land Use████4%
Summary of Proceedings

Clayton County Performance Reviews Day Two: February 12, 2026

On February 12, 2026, the Clayton County Board of Commissioners held day two of the Clayton Performance Reviews, where department leadership presented performance metrics for fiscal year 2025 quarters two and three. Deputy Chief Operating Officer Landry Merkison opened the session, inviting citizen questions via CPRquestions@claytoncountyga.gov. Departments reported on progress, challenges, and future initiatives across public safety, technology, community development, and human services.

Department Performance Reviews

Clayton County Police Department (Chief Kevin Roberts)

  • Vacancy rate: 10.8% (Q2) and 12.9% (Q3), below the 15% goal.
  • Pedestrian fatalities increased 45% year-to-date (from 11 to 16); vehicular fatalities increased 23% (from 13 to 16). Q2 saw a 100% increase in vehicular fatalities, but Q3 saw a 100% decrease back to 4. Pedestrian fatalities held at 6 in both quarters.
  • Training events: 4 in Q2, 7 in Q3.
  • Real-Time Crime Center assisted with 427 investigations over the two quarters.
  • Challenges: attrition and retirements; implemented a 30-day transition policy, expanded volunteer (VIPS) and reserve officer programs.
  • Future initiatives: community engagement, gun safe distributions, directed traffic enforcement, expansion of the Real-Time Crime Center, and a permanent academy facility.

Fire and Emergency Services (Chief not named)

  • Maintained 18 vacancies, achieving a 3.99% vacancy rate (goal ≤6%).
  • High school pathway program: 19 graduates, 8 accepted job offers; recruit class 2501 started March 31, 2025 with 22 recruits.
  • Fleet readiness: 85% goal; Q2 at 85%, Q3 dropped to 81% due to extended repairs. Two new aerial fire trucks to be placed in service in May 2025; six new ambulances arriving over 36 months.
  • Health and wellness clinic approved, staffing model set; voluntary screenings in 2025, mandatory from January 2026.
  • Challenges: recruitment; fleet maintenance. Future: purchase of six new fire engines, capital projects for fire stations, and reaccreditation process starting 2027.

Information Technology (Deputy CIO Matthew Hutcherson)

  • Public-facing websites uptime: 99.9% (goal >90%).
  • Cybersecurity risk score decreased, reflecting mandatory training.
  • Trouble ticket closure rate: 100% for both quarters.
  • Event support hours increased 16%.
  • Staff development hours dropped due to vacancies; filling positions expected to improve.
  • ARPR-funded technology enhancements: 42% complete, replacing 106 switches and 145 wireless access points.
  • Challenges: limited staff, budget constraints; entered three leasing agreements for equipment.

Grants Administration (Grant Administrator Linda Boswell)

  • HUD funding flows: $1.5M to county departments, $1.7M to nonprofits, $650K to local governments.
  • Down payment assistance: 43 new homeowners (29 county employees).
  • Affordable housing: groundbreaking in Riverdale; three new HUD-funded homes completed with Habitat for Humanity.
  • Homebuyer education workshops: 151 participants; 30 became homeowners.
  • Homeless education: 24 referrals, 10 families placed in permanent housing.
  • Environmental reviews: 42; on-site monitoring: 10.
  • Grant notifications: 32 sent; 55 applications received, totaling $17M in requests.
  • Met HUD expenditure timeliness test ahead of May 15 deadline.
  • Future: 2025 annual action plan, EV charging stations, HUD revitalization area designation.

Office of Resilience and Sustainability (Interim Director Fong Wynn)

  • Disaster preparedness training: 324 participants in Q2, 182 in Q3 (goal exceeded).
  • Mitigated 5 citizen concerns in Q2, 1 in Q3; response time under 1 hour (Q2) and 3 hours (Q3).
  • Challenges: lack of centralized Emergency Operations Center; received a $300,000 GEMA grant (with county match) for an EOC.
  • Need for dedicated homeland security intelligence officer; submitted budget request.
  • Ongoing projects: $24.5M Flint River Hazards Mitigation Grant, pocket parks, emergency operations plan, Camp Creek tributary.

Community Development (Assistant Director Cheryl Brooks)

  • Building permits processed: 178 (Q2) and 170 (Q3), achieving 90% efficiency goal except for a slight dip in Q2 due to land development issues.
  • Trade permits: over 400 each quarter.
  • Business licenses: over 2,000 processed in Q3 due to renewal season.
  • Alcohol licenses: peak in Q2.
  • Challenges: staffing levels and training new personnel.
  • Future: zoning code rewrite, historic Rex Mill arts and entertainment district, department reorganization.

Clayton County Library System (speaker not named)

  • Total visitors: over 170,000 in Q2 and Q3 combined (up from 97,000 in Q1).
  • Outreach participants: 9,656 (Q2+Q3) vs. 7,145 in Q1.
  • New library cards: 4,082 (Q2+Q3) vs. 1,362 in Q1.
  • Website/social media views: over 130,000 (Q2+Q3) vs. 28,000 in Q1.
  • Job fairs: 6 (Q2+Q3) with 3,669 participants vs. 3 fairs with 1,366 in Q1.
  • Hired 8 of 12 vacancies; net 4 positions open.
  • Onboarded 10 new community partners.
  • E-book checkouts: 277,000 (Q2+Q3) vs. 120,000 in Q1.
  • Programs: 1,110 adult/youth, 238 STEAM, 94 financial/health literacy, totaling over 31,000 participants.
  • Challenges: funding for professional development, beautification, computer replacement.
  • Solutions: grants, virtual conferences, fee-based services.

Youth Services (Administrator Sierra Dunn)

  • Youth served: 234 in Q2 and 464 in Q3, up from 72 and 206 in the previous year’s quarters.
  • Events included know-your-rights panels, love & identity summit, community food drive (1,000 canned goods), pathways to purpose career fair, youth commission.
  • Career pathway introductions: 108 in Q2, 197 in Q3.
  • Partnerships with public schools, CTAE, building maintenance, ORS, police, E911, IT for tours and coding boot camp.
  • Youth commissioners engaged in civic activities (pages, poll workers).
  • No current challenges reported.
  • Future: end-of-year celebration May 8, 2025; continued funding identification.

Human Resources (Manager Carol Lowe)

  • Turnover rate: goal <10% not reached but within industry standards; full data expected in Q4.
  • Quality of hire (two-year retention): greatly exceeded goal.
  • Personnel actions: 2,300 processed with 100% accuracy, within 3-day standard.
  • Compliance: zero onboarding incidents, zero e-verify violations.
  • Desk audits: goal 10 per quarter, working toward it.
  • Professional development: 68 classes, 2,200+ attendees (including mandatory triennial).
  • Exit surveys: 6.25% (goal 25%); new employee surveys: 7.3% (goal 50%).
  • Wellness initiatives: 741 participants across departments.
  • Challenges: manpower shortages; solutions include requesting additional positions, exploring mandatory surveys.
  • Short-term: compensation survey, civil service rewrite, HR transformation.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes or board actions were taken during the performance review session.
  • Departments reported progress on key performance indicators and outlined future initiatives. Citizens were encouraged to submit questions via email for follow-up.
  • The meeting concluded with COO Dietrich Stanford thanking presenters and emphasizing transparency and continuous improvement.

Meeting Transcript

So good morning, citizens of Clayton County, and I was my pleasure to welcome you to day two of the Clayton Performance Reviews. My name is Landry Merkison, and I have the pleasure of serving as the Deputy Chief Operating Officer for the Clayton County Board of Commissioners. Just as a reminder, our Clayton Performance Reviews is an opportunity for our department leadership to come before you and their colleagues to report out on their performance measurements and what their progress has been throughout fiscal year 25 for quarters two and for quarter three. So today you'll hear from half of our leadership. As I said, this is day two, so the other half went yesterday. And they'll update you on their progress to date as well as provide us with any challenges and obstacles that they see moving forward. As we move through today's presentations, if anyone has any questions, citizens can feel free to send their questions to CPR questions at Clayton County GA.gov. And we will make sure that we route those to the appropriate leadership, and they will get a response to you. So without further ado, it is my pleasure to welcome our first presenter up this morning, Chief Kevin Roberts from Clayton County Police Department. Chief Greetings on behalf of the Clayton County Police Department. And as we talk about the police department, who are we? We're an agency that serves and protects all citizens with excellence, and we do that through partnership and collaboration by reviewing statistical information. The first goal I want to talk about is our vacancy rate. As a department, we've set a goal of maintaining the vacancy rate below 15%. And as you look at the presentation, you will see in quarters two and three, we have met that goal, and we're on track. Quarter two, we maintain a vacancy rate of 10.8%. In quarter three, we maintain a vacancy rate of 12.9%. Under the quality of life pillar, one of our main goals is to reduce our pedestrian fatalities by 5%. We see some disruption in this area as we've seen an increase in our year-to-date fatalities. Our pedestrian fatalities increased by 45% from 11 to 16, and our vehicular fatalities increase by 23% from 13 to 16. To put it in perspective from a quarterly review, our quarter two saw a hundred percent increase in vehicular fatalities from four to eight, and pedestrian fatalities increased from four to six, which was a 50% increase. Quarter three, we saw our vehicular fatalities decrease back to four, which was a hundred percent decrease, and our pedestrian fatalities saw no change as we had six. We'll talk about how we can uh reduce those numbers a little bit later in the presentation. We also have made it a goal under the professional growth and management pillar to ensure that your personnel are adequately trained. We established the goal of having 24 training events throughout the year. We're on track to meet that goal, and during quarter two, we provided four training opportunities in the form of three training bulletins and one video for our RMS, which is our records management system. It's the system that officers use to complete our reports and store that information as well. In quarter three, we provided seven training opportunities in the form of three training bulletins and four videos as our technology is always trained, changing. Challenges and proposed solutions. This relates also our first challenge relates to our professional growth pillar in the county, attrition and retirements. We've entered a window within our department where we're seeing a lot of our seasoned veterans move towards retirement, which is a good thing for them, but not so much for the agency as we are young and we lose a lot of knowledge and experience with these retirements. So how are we overcoming that or trying to overcome that challenge through additional training? Well I mean by training is I've started a transition policy to where when I know a seasoned employees is about to retire, I'm finding their replacement early and telling them at least 30 days out. This employees are retiring. I intend to promote you in 30 days. I need you to start transitioning with that leader so we don't lose all of that great knowledge out of the door. We're also taking a different approach through our volunteers and police services program. It's an opportunity for our citizens to come volunteer their time at the police department in places where we won't have to assign a sworn or non-sworn employees. And finally, our reserve security officers are composed of those retirees who want to come back to the police department and offer their services in a part-time capacity, such as investigations, our statistical unit, and our community affairs unit. And we've seen success. I've not been able to get them all back, but I'm working on them. As far as our mandate process, the state agency for training has increased the period of mandate. They have doubled it from 400 hours to 800, which presents a challenge in training because we need an additional facility to have an overlapping training class, but through partnerships with the Office of Resiliency and Parks and Rec. We have an opportunity to provide a temporary facility to complete our training and get those folks trained up to par. Lastly, we talked about the fatalities. All of that is good police work. We've added folks to our traffic unit. We'll be doing directed patrols in the key areas to reduce those numbers. I just want to take a quick moment to talk about a real-time crime center. Those are the folks that use our cameras in the county to investigate crimes, and you see here that they have assisted with 427 investigations over two quarters, two and three.

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