Four years ago the county established a four tier wage scale for employees of the Sheriff’s Department to give them more pay and make their wages more competitive with law enforcement officers in other counties of similar size.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said at the time that his deputies and detectives were some of the lowest paid of any county our size in the state.
While the pay plan implemented in 2011 has been good for his department, Sheriff Ray believes its time the scale was brought up to date. During Tuesday night’s meeting, the county budget committee approved the sheriff’s budget request for 2015-16 which includes a new modified scale that adds two more tiers to the plan.
“We’ve had some loyal employees that has been with the county for a long time here at the sheriff’s department and we want to see them make a little more money for being loyal to the county and staying with us. They are good employees and we want to give them an incentive to stay on and also to give our younger people on the first tier something to look forward to. A goal to reach,” Sheriff Ray told WJLE Wednesday.
Although the budget committee gave its blessing for the plan, cuts were made in the Sheriff’s proposed budget to help pay for it. ” Some of the increase was anticipated because of the existing wage scale but I cut $48,480 out of my budget to help offset this (extra costs). Since taking office in 2006 we’ve always been under budget. We’ve never been over budget and we’re going to try our best this next budget year to do the same. We’ve always turned in quite a bit of money back to the county (at year’s end). I appreciate the budget committee working with me on this and the employees here will also appreciate that,” said Sheriff Ray.
Under the new wage scale, Sheriff’s Department employees start out on the first tier either as a Detective, Sergeant, Deputy, Correctional Officer, or Cook.
“After they work one calendar year from July 1, employees are eligible to advance to the second tier the following July 1. Employees may then advance to the third and fourth tier. When employees work at this department for a total of six consecutive years in the same job position, they may advance to the fifth tier. After they work two more years (eight years) in the same job position, employees will move to the sixth tier,” Sheriff Ray said.
The Chief Deputy’s pay will be based on performance rather than the six tier plan. “He is at $40,144 now and will go to $43,365. His tiers are set on performance which means the Chief Deputy will be evaluated on his performance within the Department and will then be raised to the next step accordingly. It is not a year by year tier like the other positions,” Sheriff Ray told WJLE.
The following tier plan for each position is as follows:
Chief Deputy: (Performance Tiers)
$40,144 (Yearly Pay)
$43,365
$44,675
$46,016
Detective:
1st Tier: $35,597 per year
2nd Tier:$36, 603
3rd Tier: $37,676
4th Tier: $38,615
5th Tier: $39,621
6th Tier: $40,628
Sergeant:
1st Tier: $35,597
2nd Tier: $36,156
3rd Tier: $36,715
4th Tier: $37,274
5th Tier: $37,833
6thTier: $38,392
Deputy:
1st Tier: $30,141
2nd Tier: $31,505
3rd Tier: $32,869
4th Tier: $34,233
5th Tier: $35,597
6thTier: $36,961
Correctional Officer:
1st Tier: $26,429
2nd Tier: $27,145
3rd Tier: $27,860
4th Tier: $28,598
5th Tier: $29,269
6thTier: $30,007
Cook:
1st Tier: $20,966
2nd Tier: $21,299
3rd Tier: $21,632
4th Tier: $22,006
5th Tier: $22,297
6thTier: $22,630
The budget committee’s favorable recommendation on the sheriff’s department and jail budget including this new pay plan now goes to the county commission this summer for final approval
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