Rockdale County E-911's operations manager and long-time county employee Julie Seng recently resigned in the latest development in a transition that included a new fire chief and an upgrade to a digital radio system.

Seng, who had been with the county for more than two decades, resigned effective May 4 in a letter dated April 23.

Seng did not receive a severance package, according to county spokesperson Tonya Parker.

E-911 radio manager Bill Cates has been named interim operations manager.

"Right now Bill is stepping up working with the fire chief and working with the county," said Chief of Staff Greg Pridgeon.

The E-911 center, which dispatches calls for Rockdale County Sheriff's Office and Rockdale Fire and Rescue, is under Public Safety and Emergency Services in the county, is headed up by Fire Chief Franklin Wilson. The city of Conyers and Conyers Police Department has a separate 911 center.

Pridgeon said to his knowledge the operations manager position has not been advertised. "We'll turn it over to the pay and study classification group," he said.

The county is conducting a pay and classification study with the Evergreen Solutions company to see if people's jobs are appropriately classified and if the appropriate pay grade is attached with the classification, said Human Resources Director David Bowie.

The study, which started about six weeks ago, is tentatively slated to wrap in August with recommendations following.

Commissioner Oz Nesbitt expressed concerns earlier in the year about E-911 being short-staffed, especially given its critical role in public safety, and public safety personnel being underpaid.

Pridgeon said the agency, which had a budget of about $1.18 million last year, had recently hired four or five more people and only had two vacancies remaining.

A request for proposals for a $4.5 million partial upgrade of the county's analog radio system to a digital system was canceled last fall after procedural errors. The county then decided not to rebid the contract but to purchase equipment through the state's contract with Motorola.

Steve Macke, a local resident, had raised questions on the way the RFP was written, saying it was written towards a sole-source contract. He also brought up concerns over the interoperability and cost of a digital radio system, saying the county might find itself investing more than the $4.5 million Macke said he was a consultant who had worked for Motorola and county governments in the past but was currently speaking out as a concerned resident.