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Commissioners approve $2.54M temporary staffing contract for elections after debate on costs
Summary
The board approved a statewide contract to secure temporary staff for upcoming elections, amid commissioner questions about agency markups and whether seasonal hires or in‑house alternatives could save taxpayers money.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners approved a statewide contract for temporary staffing services for the registration and elections department in an amount not to exceed $2,537,035.32, after a lengthy discussion about markup rates, overtime billing and whether the county could rely less on agencies and more on seasonal hires.
Elections director and staff explained the contract covers payroll, recruitment and payroll processing for temporary workers used during early voting and election days; the department emphasized temporary vendors do not run elections but provide administrative and staffing support that the permanent elections team supervises. Commissioners raised several questions about the economics and procurement approach. Commissioner Bridget Thorne asked about pay rates and overtime markups; the staff said the vendor’s pay rate for a sample role would be $18.50 an hour and the vendor billing rate included a markup (27% regular, 50% overtime) and that time‑and‑a‑half applied to the pay rate for overtime calculations.
Commissioner Thorne and others compared Fulton’s approach to neighboring counties and asked whether seasonal county hires could provide cost savings; staff replied that Human Resources had previously advised the department that the county’s internal HR capacity was insufficient to recruit and manage the higher temporary volumes for elections. Commissioner Thorne requested more analysis comparing models and noted differences in how other counties staff early‑voting operations.
Commissioner Mo Ivory asked whether the department was confident the selected vendor would deliver the staffing levels needed to produce safe, accurate elections; staff said the department’s objective was to achieve the same operations quality and praised the 2024 performance, saying the department targeted similar outcomes.
The motion to approve the contract carried with a recorded tally announced during the meeting (5 yeas, 1 nay); the transcript did not record names for each vote. Commissioners asked elections staff to provide a follow‑up analysis comparing temporary staffing costs versus in‑house seasonal hiring options and to provide a clearer breakdown of overtime and markup rates for the vendor selected.
