With $25K raise, Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens becomes the highest-paid sheriff in metro Atlanta area

Thanks to a $25,000 pay raise recently approved by the Georgia General Assembly, Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens is now the highest-paid sheriff in metro Atlanta.

Compared to other communities, Owens will now make $195,000. This is more than that of sheriffs in Fulton ($189,000), Gwinnett ($193,000), and DeKalb ($153,000). In Senate Bill 104, an initially proposed raise of $50,000 for Owens was submitted by State Senator Michael “Doc” Rhett. The bill was revised and the proposed raise was cut in half following questions raised by Cobb Republicans.

A compromise was later reached and both chambers approved the revised version, passing it in the Georgia House of Representatives on March 14 and the Georgia Senate on March 20. Cobb legislators in attendance during the vote in the House and Senate supported the bill. 

Members of the community supported the raise and felt it would make Owens competitive and place him in line with Cobb’s other public safety officials who were making more money than the Sheriff.

Owens said, “That really would keep me in balance with the chief of police, the director (of public safety), and things of that nature.”

In Cobb, the Police Chief, Stuart VanHoozer, earns $191,908 a year. Before he retired in December as Cobb County Public Safety Director, Randy Crider was paid $193,250 a year. The person serving as Interim Director, Bill Johnson, makes $190,745.