HOMER — Almost weekly, city and county leaders across the region are looking for ways to retain experienced law enforcement officers, and Banks County is no different.
Though Banks County Commissioners say they already have some of the best pay in the area, they have approved top-down pay increases for certified deputies at the sheriff’s office effective July 1.
The increases, part of the county’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget, will increase compensation for certified officers by $2,000 per year, something Sheriff Carlton Speed is essential to maintaining the best officers in the area.
The increase will apply to 48 officers.
“This increase in your patrol salary should put us at the very top of the salary scale of any county around us, and probably some of the larger metro areas, too,” Commission Chairman Jimmy Hooper told Speed during a public budget meeting. “With that being said, I think we should be able to recruit and maintain quality, quality people.”
Additionally, commissioners agreed to increase the sheriff’s salary from $68,886 to $78,445, and the chief deputy’s salary from $56,762 to $65,000 in the upcoming budget.
“My first day back at work [after surgery], I agreed to increase the sheriff’s salary to what my salary is, which is $78,800 and some dollars and change,” Hooper said. “We agreed to that. Also, we agreed for Chief Deputy Shawn Wilson’s salary to come up to be equivalent to the other department heads with the same responsibilities, at around $65,000.”
That’s an overall impact on the sheriff’s office budget of $225,958.
On the jail side, commissioners agreed to the sheriff hiring two additional detention officers, at a cost of $63,816.
“I don’t know where those funds will come from,” Hooper said.
But Speed reminded commissioners detention center operations are not optional.
“The request at the first budget meeting, if I remember correctly, was either overtime or the two additional personnel,” Speed said. “We don’t have a choice. We can’t shut the jail down.”
Speed said a problem with using overtime funds to staff the jail is it’s difficult to find people from the limited staff who are willing to work the additional hours.
“When we have folks out, say we have two people that want to take vacation at the same time, we can’t let two people at a time take vacation because that could decimate a whole shift, so we have to pull overtime in,” Speed said.
Commissioners agreed the new positions are necessary to maintain detention center operations.
As a result of the new positions, Speed said he should be able to reduce overtime to $10,000, meaning the net increase for the two new detention officer positions will only be about $35,000.
“You start looking at a $35,000 increase versus a multi-million-dollar lawsuit because we’re understaffed at the jail, kind of pick your poison,” Speed said.
Additionally, the terminal agency coordinator for the sheriff’s office, whose duties have been expanded, will receive a $5,000 increase in pay commensurate with those responsibilities.
Overall, the impact on the jail budget will be an increase of $126,350, since some deputies work in the detention center, according to Banks County Finance Officer Randy Failyer.
The total budget increase for the sheriff’s office and jail budgets in FY-19 is $352,408, according to Failyer.
“This is a figure that’s got me now,” Hooper said. “In 2013, the budget was $2,929,000,” Hooper said. “If we fund everything that you’re asking for today, sheriff and jail, it would be $4,861,000. That’s an increase in five years of $1,931,000, plus a little over $100,000 we’ve paid out of capital for the sheriff’s office and jail. When you get to talking about $2 million, that’s a sizable increase over five years. That’s $400,000 a year in sheriff and jail. That’s something, as Mama says, we need to be able to talk about.”
Hooper said commissioners need to be able to justify the increases.
“I think the citizens have been really happy with it, though,” Speed said.
