Raises sought for deputies

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department needs $2.2 million to stop the hemorrhaging of patrol deputies and jail staff so it can adequately protect the public, department officials said Thursday during a budget pitch to the county commission.

“We are no longer in a crisis, we are in meltdown,” newly hired Undersheriff Tad Leach told the commission.

The loss of deputies to Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Spokane is nothing new but instead of getting better, the pay discrepancy is only getting worse, he said. And that’s on the heels of Kootenai County’s 2005 salary study that was aimed at solving the problem. At the time, county employees got more than $1 million in salary and benefit adjustments to keep the county pay in line with other Northwest governments and similarly sized businesses.

Leach said all it did was raise the salaries of entry-level deputies, which is now causing a discrepancy problem because some less-experienced employees are paid more than deputies with additional seniority and training.

In 2005, sheriff employees were paid 13 percent less than Coeur d’Alene Police officers. Today the gap has jumped to nearly 34 percent. Kootenai County patrol deputies start at $17.19 an hour while Coeur d’Alene officers are paid $19.31 hourly to start. Spokane officers are on average paid $1,000 a month more than Kootenai County deputies.

The sheriff’s department wants an additional $2.2 million over its current personnel budget of $7.5 million to fix the pay scale. It is also proposing annual cost of living adjustments and an annual review of market salaries to ensure that salaries remain competitive.

Leach said the salary study also was supposed to provide criteria for how sheriff’s employees would move through the pay scale until they maxed out at the top level. That never happened.

Commission Chairman Rick Currie acknowledged that the county does need to work with the consultant to get that portion of the study completed.

Not one of the 139 current sworn deputies is at the top pay grade, even Undersheriff Gary Cuff who is retiring next month after nearly 32 years of service, Leach said.

The commissioners said they understand the gravity of the situation yet still asked the sheriff’s department to make even more cuts in its proposed budget because finding an extra $2 million is difficult and likely impossible.

Commissioner Rich Piazza said it could take several years to get the sheriff’s department pay scale adjusted.

“Relay to your employees that we are not going to wave the magic wand,” Piazza said. “It’s been a problem for a long time. You aren’t the only department we’ve asked to forego something.”

All county departments are currently presenting proposed fiscal year 2007 budgets to the county commission that include requests for new employees and equipment.

In the next couple months the commission will whittle down the requests and publish a tentative budget total in early August. In September the county will have a public hearing.

The personnel proposal was the focus of the sheriff’s department presentation Thursday and didn’t include requests for other budget items, such as two new licensed professional nurse positions to distribute medication to inmates, jail maintenance or a new 12-person van.

The department, the largest in the county, will present the remainder of its budget request Tuesday.

Leach repeatedly said that facility needs don’t matter if the department doesn’t have enough staff. That means stopping the exodus.

Recently Sheriff Rocky Watson told commissioners and the mayors of Hayden and Dalton Gardens that he is so short on deputies that he can no longer adequately fulfill his contract to provide law enforcement protection to those cities.

He has been unable to fill 16 open deputy positions despite aggressive advertising campaigns and efforts to recruit from smaller departments.

Capt. Ben Wolfinger said that when the commission decides on how to distribute money that public safety should be a top priority.

“I would rather wait in line for a motor vehicle license than a deputy if I needed one,” Wolfinger said.

Leach told commissioners of a recent home-invasion in Bayview that took deputies 24 minutes to respond to because no one was covering the northern part of the county.

“I don’t think that’s the level of service our citizens would want,” Leach said.

It would cost the owner of a $250,000 home $1.99 per month in extra taxes to total the additional $2.2 million. Leach said that’s less than one gallon of milk a month.

In the last decade, the department has hired 77 patrol deputies, but only 34 remain. Leach said that means the county has spent $3 million to train deputies for other neighboring agencies. He called it a waste of taxpayers’ money, especially when the same amount could have fixed the pay scale for good.