FINANCE OFFICE

The principal responsibility of the Finance Office is to support the three divisions of the GBI through budget development and fiscal management of all funding received by this agency. The Finance Office is supervised by the agency's fiscal officer/treasurer, and the staff is organized into three units: Accounting, Budget and Procurement.

Accounting

The Accounting Unit is comprised of an accounting director and 11 accounting positions. The staff receives, records, and disburses funds using a modified accrual system of accounting. A total of 17,500 expense checks were generated stemming from the processing of more than 23,574 field purchase orders (FPO), direct reimbursements, payment requests, CJCC subgrant payments and travel vouchers. Staff received, recorded and deposited more than 64,375 checks for payments of services rendered by the agency.

The accounting staff is also responsible for the payroll operations for 868 state positions, plus a number of federal and temporary positions that generated 4,116 paychecks and 16,765 direct deposits in FY01.

Budgeting

The Budget Unit, comprised of a budget administrator and three analysts, manages and monitors all expenditures made by organizational units. The staff also developed a budget request for FY02 that resulted in the appropriation of $67,069,372 funds.

In addition to state funds, this section is responsible for administering all grant awards. During 2001, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) was moved from the Office of Planning and Budget to the GBI under House Bill 579. CJCC added $59,967,179 in federal and other funds to the budget. These funds were awarded to state, local units of government and non-profit organizations. In addition, CJCC administers the Victims Compensation Fund that resulted in another $3,580,358 for the crime victims program.

Procurement

The Procurement Unit, comprised of five positions, processes all field purchase orders, requisitions and bid requests for the GBI. During FY01, this section processed 3,732 purchase orders.

FY'01: Total Funds Budgeted by Division

FY'01: Finance Activity

LEGAL SERVICES

The primary responsibility of the Office of Legal Services is to provide advice and counsel to the director and all divisions of the GBI. In addition to this, the Open Records Section (ORS) handles the many open records requests received by the GBI. The Office of Legal Service is comprised of two attorneys: the director and deputy director; an assistant deputy director (ADD); a legal assistant; a secretary; and two open records clerks.

The number of open records requests received by the ORS continued to increase. There were 1,891 requests in FY01 compared to 1,782 the previous year. The Georgia Open Records Act mandates a response within three days of receipt of the request. Consequently, ORS personnel must quickly prepare a thorough and accurate answer to the request. The assistant deputy director has created a computer program that tracks the status of the requests and ensures compliance with the statute.

The assistant deputy director is the agency records custodian and records management officer. As records custodian, he must represent the GBI in any judicial proceeding in which GBI records are sought by court order, subpoena, or request for production of documents. In FY01, the ORS handled 40 subpoenas, three court orders, and 81 requests for production of documents. The ADD also responded to more than 40 requests regarding the retention and/or additional testing of biological specimens.

The Legal Services Office continued its work in training; provided counsel on legal issues to the agents in the field; acted as a liaison for the Attorney General's Office on civil complaints involving GBI employees; and advised managers and the Office of Professional Standards of legal issues regarding adverse actions.

This year, the Office of Legal Services took a proactive approach in assisting managers and the efforts proved successful. There was only one appeal of an adverse action against an employee; however, it was subsequently dropped at the employee's request prior to a hearing.

In FY01, the Legal Services Office also was active in providing training. The deputy director attended Peace Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) Instructor School and now students in classes she teaches can receive P.O.S.T. credit for attending. The deputy director developed and taught a class regarding harassment and discrimination in the workplace to all GBI employees.

Additionally, the Legal Services Office provided legal instruction for in-service, new agents' and supervisors' training sessions at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth.

Finally, the Legal Services Office continues to draft proposed legislation and assist the GBI command staff in evaluating legal issues that arise in proposed legislation.

PERSONNEL OFFICE

The Office of Personnel is comprised of one part-time and eight full-time employees. The office is responsible for providing support to the three divisions and the Administrative Section of the GBI in all human resource matters. The routine responsibilities include the following: recruiting and hiring of new employees; processing personnel transactions; handling employee relations matters; classifying positions; developing new and revising existing agency jobs; monitoring the compensation structure; establishing minimum job qualifications; administering Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) services; administering the agency's drug screening program; overseeing the performance management process; assisting employees with benefits; serving as the liaison for workers' compensation; coordinating the student internship and youth apprenticeship programs; and managing the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

The Office of Personnel provided management training in evaluating employee performance; made concerted efforts to ensure that equal employment opportunities were available to a diverse population by making its job vacancy notices available to a variety of audiences and organizations; provided recruitment information via private and government Web sites; and received job applications over the Internet.

In addition to their regular responsibilities, staff in the Office of Personnel provided assistance in preparation for the national re-accreditation process through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). Applicable policies and procedures were reviewed for necessary changes, as one-third of the standards established by this program are personnel-related.

Investigative Division: 412 full-time employees • 22 hourly employees • 434 total.

GCIC: 131 full-time employees • 1 hourly employee • 132 total.

DOFS: 258 full-time employees • 14 hourly employees • 272 total.

Administration: 54 full-time employees • 3 hourly employees • 57 total.

CJCC: 27 full-time employee • 1 hourly employee • 28 total

Total GBI: 923 employees

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

The Office of Professional Standards (OPS) is responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct made against GBI employees. The office is managed by an inspector from the Investigative Division. He reviews and investigates all complaints, determining whether they have legitimacy or lack merit.

Each year the complaints are reviewed and studied, and then evaluated a second time to identify any patterns of misconduct. Based on those findings, the office then recommends appropriate actions and/or training.

During FY01, OPS conducted:

• 19 internal affairs investigations involving complaints made against employees from individuals outside the agency;
  
• One internal investigation into allegations made against an employee by another employee;
  
• Five preliminary and 12 administrative inquiries;
  
• And took 45 personnel actions.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

STAFF SERVICES

Staff Services provides a variety of Support functions for the GBI, including facility management, fleet management, asset management, and telecommunications.

Facilities Management

The Facility Management Section worked on the following projects during FY01:

Fleet & Property

The Fleet and Asset Section manages the GBI's fleet of more that 500 vehicles and GBI assets valued in excess of $29 million.

PeopleSoft accounting software continues to provide a challenge to the asset management team. Never before has there been such a close tie between asset management and procurement. The Procurement Section and the asset management team are working together to reconcile GBI assets and dollars spent.

Installation of Fleet Anywhere, fleet management software, was completed early in the fiscal year. The Fleet and Asset Section has trained more than 50 GBI support staff employees in the use of this important software tool. Fleet Anywhere provides GBI staff with real-time information regarding status of the fleet. Reports on current and projected use of vehicles have proven invaluable in the preparation of strategic budget planning.

Other services provided by this section included management of the surplus property program, accident reporting, commercial fuel card management, and management of undercover commercial accounts.

Other Support Services

Telecommunications Management

Telecommunications saw a tremendous change as the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA) replaced the Department of Administrative Services (DOAS). A tremendous amount of energy was expended, creating new relationships and obtaining the necessary support level to satisfy GBI telecommunications needs.

Records Management

This support function continued to grow throughout the fiscal year particularly where open records requests are concerned. As a result, this function will be transferred to the Open Records Section in the coming fiscal year where the agency’s records management officer will manage it.

Contract Administration

Staff Services was responsible for the administration of the headquarters security personnel contract and building operations and maintenance contract. A great deal of time and energy was spent on both of these contracts throughout the year, ensuring that the vendors' performance was in compliance with contract requirements. The building operations and maintenance contract was amended to include our Northwest Regional Crime Lab. This has proven to be successful and cost effective.

Staff Services also is responsible for risk management and security and access issues.

GBI Unveils Monument to Agents who Gave Lives in Duty

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has erected a monument honoring those employees who died in the line of duty. The monument was unveiled on March 7, 2001, at GBI Headquarters in Decatur in a brief ceremony as family, friends, and former colleagues gathered to pay tribute to the nine special agents whose names are etched in the black granite. The memorial, designed by Bryant & Associates of Atlanta, stands six feet in height and was paid for with money donated by GBI employees and retirees.

"The GBI is an agency that was built on the strong shoulders of those employees who have gone before us," said GBI Director Milton E. Nix, Jr. "This memorial honors their accomplishments and sacrifices and challenges us, as crusaders of justice, to press on in their absence."

It was in the parking lot of a Swainsboro, Georgia, roadside inn that the first GBI agent gave his life in the line of duty. His death sparked one of the largest manhunts in Georgia's history.

On March 3, 1948, less than a month into his employment with the GBI, Special Agent Garland Fields, 38, was having dinner with his wife and daughter when he noticed a man in his 20s enter the inn and attempt to sell the owner a rifle. Suspicious, Fields approached the young man, displayed his badge, and began asking questions. His questions were met with resistance and Fields followed the man outside to a parked sedan where three others, a man and two women, waited for his return. Fields ordered all four occupants out of the vehicle, but the driver made his own demands with a revolver. Agent Fields attempted to duck into the shadows and free his own gun from the holster, but the gunman fired first. Agent Fields was struck three times. As he fell to his knees, he managed to get five rounds off with his service revolver. The bullets did little to stop the sedan and the suspects' getaway.

The heroic acts of Agent Field were his last. He died minutes later. His killers, the Edwards brothers, who had staged a jailbreak in Tennessee, were captured 12 hours later.

More than 100 law enforcement personnel and irate farmers participated in the final gun battle. Before it was over, the suspects had committed two carjackings and had exchanged more than 100 rounds of gunfire with officers. The Edwards brothers and their two accomplices went to prison for their parts in the murder.

Almost 16 years later, on December 23, 1964, Special Agent Welton Harrell, a 12-year veteran of the agency, died in a car accident, and regrettably, would be the first of four agents to lose their lives to automobile accidents while on duty.

The second occurred on March 3, 1966. Special Agent Benjamin L. Sentell, 53, was working an investigation in Jefferson County, when he lost control of his vehicle on a road just outside of Louisville, Georgia. The road was slick from heavy rain, and the four-door sedan he was driving careened off the roadway into an embankment. He had been employed with the GBI for 26 years.

In November of 1973, after five years with the agency, Special Agent Larry Collins, returning home to Americus from a court proceeding near Athens, died in a single-car wreck.

And it was just four years ago that a car accident claimed the life of Special Agent Troy L. Pierce. At the age of 18, Agent Pierce was fresh out of high school when he answered the call to carry a badge and a gun. He began his career with the GBI as a narcotics agent in 1980 and later was promoted to special agent and assigned to the Region 10 Office.

On a rainy morning in May of 1997, Agent Pierce's career tragically came to an end. While on his way to the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth from his home in Conyers, he lost control of his vehicle and crashed on Highway 20. Seven months later, at the age of 35, Agent Pierce died as a result of injuries he sustained from the accident. He devoted more than half of his life to the GBI.

Special Agent Frank Ellerbee was assigned to the Coastal Area Narcotics Unit and was the first GBI agent to die in the war on drugs. On January 12, 1983, Agent Ellerbee, along with McIntosh County deputies and other GBI agents, was executing a search warrant at the Darien home of suspected drug dealer Walter Brennon, when Agent Ellerbee was stabbed in the back multiple times. As a seasoned, undercover agent, Ellerbee had purchased marijuana and cocaine from Brennon on several occasions. Agent Ellerbee died on the way to the hospital. His attacker received life in prison for the slaying.

When Special Agent in Charge John T. "Sonny" King of the Milledgeville Regional Office approached the door of a Morgan County gun shop on September 13, 1985, he suspected there might be trouble. Accompanied by the Morgan County sheriff and his chief deputy, the three men were on a mission to delivery an arrest warrant for the shop's owner, Buck Watkins. Agent Bert Davis, concealing a shotgun, was stationed at a nearby car ready to react.

Watkins had a reputation for being cold-blooded and was under investigation by the GBI for committing two murders. He answered the door but his conversation with the lawmen was brief. He pulled a 45-caliber handgun from his back pocket and opened fire, a bullet striking SAC King in the chest and another ripping through the chief deputy's arm. In his final seconds, SAC King managed to fire a shot grazing his assailant's side.

As the sheriff directed his wounded chief deputy to shelter, Watkins then turned his gun on Agent Davis, who responded in kind and fired the fatal shots stopping Watkins' rampage. SAC King was a 21-year veteran of the GBI.

In 1988, the GBI suffered another loss. It was late in the evening on August 28, 1988, when Special Agent Robert M. "Bob" Kirk answered the knock on the front door of his Thomson home. A stranger in his 20s stood on the front porch and the reason for his visit was unusual. He wanted to know if he could borrow some matches.

Agent Kirk, a veteran state trooper and agent of two years, immediately became suspicious and declined the request. Minutes later, Agent Kirk was in his state-issued vehicle searching for the man he believed was up to no good. He found his suspect, later identified as Clifford Boutry, down the road arguing with another man and a woman. When Boutry saw Agent Kirk, his rage turned deadly. Pulling out a gun, he fired on Agent Kirk and fatally wounded him.

It was later learned that Boutry had been in a fight with his girlfriend and wanted the matches to burn down her home. He was charged with murder, escaped from jail and was later shot to death when he turned a gun on another GBI agent and police officer.

At 29 years of age, Special Agent William L. "Lee" DeLoach had just taken a promotion with the Douglas Regional Office to work general investigations. But before he could leave drug investigations behind, he needed to complete his final assignment with the Savannah Regional Drug Enforcement Office.

On July 14, 1993, Agent DeLoach boarded a U.S. Customs helicopter to take part in operation "Riversweep" – a major drug investigation in southeast Georgia. It was on that mission, that Agent DeLoach lost his life. The helicopter he was on crashed in a wooded area in Wayne County. There were no survivors.