GREENFIELD — Hancock County officials are still debating the best way to offer raises to sheriff’s department employees, something they say is a top priority they aim to complete this year.
Hancock County council member Bill Bolander said raising salaries is essential to retaining the department’s current employees, let alone recruiting new ones.
“We can’t be losing trained deputies,” he said.
Bolander said the county council will consider the pay matrices of other law enforcement bodies as part of its decision-making process, such as the Indiana State Police and the sheriff’s department in Bartholomew County, which is a similar size to Hancock County.
Sheriff Brad Burkhart has presented the county council with a salary matrix similar to the one used by the state police, which was adopted in 2018. The matrix starts with a patrolman’s salary of $52,000, with gradual raises up to a top salary of $74,500 for patrol deputies who have been with the department for 20 years.
Pay increases as deputies move up the ranks, with a corporal making a base salary of $64,815 and a top salary of $77,885, a sergeant making salaries of $67,757 to $81,419, lieutenants $70,833 to $85,117, captains $74,047 to $88,978, and majors $77,408 to $93,014.
At the top of the pay scale, this is a dramatic increase. Both deputies currently make a base salary of $50,575, with increases for rank and longevity. Apart from the sheriff, the highest-paid employee is a major who makes less than $66,000.
“I don’t feel that my deputies are any different than the state police,” Burkhart said. “The state police that work in Hancock County are making a good salary based on their matrix, and my deputies should be equivalent, at least, to that.”
Burkhart said his goal is to get the department’s salaries to a level where he no longer feels that his department is a “training ground” for young deputies who then move on to higher-paying positions with other agencies. Two of his deputies, he said, recently left to take positions with fire departments.
“I hate losing these young guys to other agencies, I really do,” he said. “We’ll find other good people, but there’s no reason we should have to do that when we’ve got good people already.”
Hancock County’s financial advisor, Greg Guerretaz, is also working on incorporating raises for employees into a sustainability study, which projects a government unit’s long-term financial health given a certain set of parameters and expenses.
During discussion of the potential raises, some members of the Hancock County Budget Committee have suggested that raises should also go to members of Hancock County staff who work in other departments. Two different committees were created, one to make recommendations on law enforcement employees and one on other departments.
Guerretaz said he will begin the process of updating the sustainability study to incorporate data about raises for law enforcement and non-law enforcement county employees when he receives information about what those raises would be from the county government. Once he has that data, he said, the process would take 30-60 days.
In order to feel that a raise was in the best interests of the county’s financial health, Guerretaz said, he would need the study to show that the expense across the next three years would not significantly deplete its general or public safety funds.
“That’s going to be really, really difficult,” he said.
When Hancock County makes a financial decision, Guerretaz said, it’s important to consider the impact the spending might have on the county’s AAA credit rating from Fitch Ratings, the highest score available. Hancock is one of the few counties in Indiana to score so high.
The AAA rating, meaning the county is very likely to pay its debts, means it can secure lower interest rates when financing projects and is also attractive to companies considering moving to the area.
In order to make raises possible, Guerretaz said, it might be necessary to phase them in in several steps over the next few years. But there are other factors to take into account, too: Guerretaz said the 2020 financial data he’s received is positive, showing that Hancock County has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic relatively well, but it is important to remember that the income tax impact of the economic downturn could hit hardest in 2022. However, the county may also receive money from a future government stimulus package.
“There are a lot of moving pieces,” Guerretaz said. “…It’s going to be one of the toughest sustainability studies that we’ve done for Hancock County.”
The sustainability study for the county is updated each year with the latest financial information and extends three years into the future, looking at how the county’s major funds will be impacted by projected revenue, expenses, and economic conditions.
Bolander said he believes the best way to set pay levels would be primarily according to employee’s longevity. Not every employee with the department can be promoted to captain or chief, he said, but it’s important that rank-and-file officers still have an incentive to remain.
County council member Jeannine Gray said she can’t speak to raises for other departments, since she isn’t on that committee, but she thinks raises for sheriff’s department employees are essential.
“It has been years since they have been given any type of of substantial raise that brings them in line with other agencies,” Gray said.
County commissioner John Jessup said he is undecided about what form the raises should take.
“I think we need something, but I’m not in the camp that thinks we only need to do something for the sheriff’s department,” he said.
Bolander said there is no set timeline for when a decision about pay raises will be made, but that he would like it to be sooner rather than later. He said he believes attraction and retention of employees will only continue to grow as a problem if the county government does not address it.
“It’s becoming less attractive to be a police officer, so we have to make it worth their while to stay in it and to stay here,” he said.
Burkhart said he agrees that law enforcement is becoming a less appealing career option for some. A study by the Police Executive Research Forum released in 2020 found that over five years, 60% of police departments reported seeing a reduction in applications of at least 30%.
“Everything seems to be a struggle right now, and hopefully we can work through this on the pay raise side to at least be competitive, to at least be able to recruit and retain what we’ve got,” he said.