International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 471 v. Chatham County

Beasley, Judge.

The 1990 Chatham County personnel handbook provides that county employees who perform* to certain standards will receive specified salary increases. The board of commissioners did not approve funding for increases in 1993, 1995, and 1996, although it did so in other years. Employees sought, by suit, increases which would have been paid in those years and a writ requiring the county to pay future increases.

Both the county and the employees moved for summary judgment. The court, citing Buskirk v. State of Ga.,1 held that the county commissioners had the discretion each year…