The power of the purse strings and the firmness of a union contract will come into play as the Greene County supervisors consider the coming fiscal year’s budget for law enforcement.
Sheriff Jack Williams on Monday presented to the supervisors his proposed budget for the year beginning July 1. He estimates expenditures at $1,480,000, a $20,000 decrease from the current year.
His budget includes a 5 percent wage increase for the sheriff’s deputies, effective July 1. The union contract, though, calls for a 2.5 percent increase. The larger increase is needed “to get the deputies closer to where they should be,” Williams said.
According to Williams, most sheriff’s offices set deputies’ wages as a percentage of the sheriff’s. In Greene County, a deputy’s starting salary – $40,000 – is 62 percent of the sheriff’s salary. A deputy with certification is paid $43,300.
In Guthrie County a starting deputy without certification starts at $49,600, Williams said. After one year and obtaining certification his salary increases to $53,600, and after five years his salary increases to $55,700.
“We have deputies that have been with the county for more than eight years and are just making around $44,000,” Williams told GreeneCountyNewsOnline. “In order to keep good deputies here we have to get the pay more equal to our surrounding counties, or they get certified here and leave to another agency.”
He thinks the hiring process is getting more competitive as the challenges of law enforcement have grown. “After the last hiring process we went through it is very clear that less people are wanting to be in the profession of law enforcement,” he said.
This is not the first time Williams has tried to increase deputies’ salaries. He asked for a 5 percent wage increase a year ago for FY18, the current fiscal year. That was taken out of the budget.
In November, he asked for an increase to $43,300 for deputy Chris Frehse when he finished the law enforcement academy. The supervisors did not approve the needed resolution because the union contact calls for an increase to $42,500.
Auditor Jane Heun explains that once a budget is approved, individual line items (like wages) can be exceeded as long as the total for that budget and service area is not exceeded. The supervisors also approve separately individual wages before the start of each fiscal year. “So they’re basically telling us how much of an increase, whether it be union or otherwise, may be given for employees,” Heun said.
