Commissioners took another look at a program to lure current and future county employees in to live in Rockdale County at the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners work session Tuesday morning.

The incentive based program is especially being aimed at public safety employees such as Rockdale County Sheriff's Office deputies. Commissioner JaNice Van Ness, Post 2, stated that the last time the program was discussed among the board about 51% of the deputies were living outside of Rockdale.

Having more public safety employees could make neighborhoods safer places to live, shorten response time in emergency situations and reduce fuel cost and maintenance of county-owned vehicles, says Van Ness.

"There were a lot of factors that went into this," said Van Ness.

One proposed incentive by Van Ness was to pay each county employee a bonus of $1,000 annually for living within the Rockdale border. The payments would be paid in two separate installments of $500.

Her fellow commissioners support having an incentive based program. The program was approved by the board at the March 26, 2013 voting session, however it has yet to be implemented.

Commissioner Oz Nesbitt, Post 1, recommended the board appoint someone to take charge of the implementation process so, "we're not back here next year."

There was some debate by Van Ness and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Oden on when the conversation about the program should continue. Van Ness wanted to continue to talk about the program during the work session, but Oden felt it would be better to discuss the program at a later date.

"I strongly agree with the incentive based program," said Oden. "It's all based on funding, so I would hope that this coming budget cycle that the resources are there to continue to push this incentive based program."

The incentive program proposal was part of a list of 23 goals commissioners had set in 2013. Van Ness was reviewing the status of the list of goals.