GREENFIELD — After months of discussion and debate, the Hancock County Council has held votes approving a raise for all county employees in 2022 and an especially substantial one for sheriff’s deputies.
Aimed at improving employee recruitment and retention, the conversation that began with the formation of study committees and continued throughout many meetings of both the council and the commissioners came to a conclusion at the council’s budget meeting on Wednesday, July 21.
The council approved an 18% raise for sheriff’s deputies, along with a 7% raise for all other county employees. Non-elected department heads will receive a $4,200 raise, with the exception of those who do not supervise anyone; they will also get the 7% increase. The sheriff’s department will also be able to hire three more deputies, in addition to three hired this year.
Elected officials, including the county commissioners, will receive a $4,200 raise, with the exception of council members, who will get a raise of $3,100. Commissioners currently earn $29,540 a year; council members are paid $6,981.
County council president Bill Bolander said that while there are some new expenses and some decisions left to make, he believes the county will be in good fiscal shape throughout 2022 as long as income tax revenue remains at its current level.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how it all turns out,” he said.
During the budget meeting, the county council also approved the addition of a public defender’s office to the county for the first time. This office will employ three attorneys and will set its salaries at the same level as comparable positions in the county prosecutor’s office. (A full story on the new office will appear in the Daily Reporter on Saturday, July 24.)
A total number for the county budget in 2022 is not yet available, as a final total needs to be added up. It will also need to be approved by the state’s Department of Local Government Finance.
The county will be adding some new employees in 2022. In addition to the new deputies, money was allocated for Community Corrections director Wade Kennedy to hire up to 10 new staff members in 2022 to restart the county’s work-release program. The program was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its return has seemed uncertain with population numbers still down at the county jail.
Kennedy said that once the new jail opens, work-release could be back up to its previous capacity within four months. He plans to hire up to 10 full-time employees to work rotating 12-hour shifts supervising the inmates who obtain permission to work a job in the community while serving out their sentences.
Sheriff Brad Burkhart, who has previously expressed hesitancy about the effectiveness of the work-release program, said his discussions with Kennedy had convinced him it could be productive. Kennedy was hired to head Community Corrections last summer, after the program’s initial suspension.
“I’m very much a strong proponent of making it happen,” Burkhart said. “I just didn’t like how it was done previously.”
The county’s CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) program also got permission to hire two new employees and give a raise to one for the program that runs a volunteer-based program working with children in court cases involving child abuse or neglect. The positions are partially grant-funded.
Salaries for the employees of the probation department also got a more substantial boost, as they are set by the state.
Other department heads are also asking for additional money in the future. John Jokantas, director of the county’s 911 center, has asked the county for permission to establish a pay scale based on longevity with the county in the upcoming year. The five-tier scale would raise his department’s total salary expenses by about 8.3%, an addition of about $12,000 per year over the proposed raise for all departments.
Jokantas said he hoped raising the salary now would prevent retention problems in the future, like those the sheriff’s department has seen. The county commissioners gave a favorable recommendation to his request.
Saying they needed more information on the proposal, the council members tabled that discussion for their August meeting.
Although his 2022 budget was approved, Coroner David Stillinger appealed to the county for an additional future raise for his deputies, saying they often do unpaid training and go to dangerous scenes for an hourly pay rate that can work out to below minimum wage. Stillinger said the department also needs a proper headquarters and that he does much of his work from his own office at his funeral business.
Council member Kent Fisk spoke up in favor of putting more money toward the coroner’s department.
“The whole budget is a fourth of what we pay for animal control, and the coroner is one of the most important things we have,” Fisk said.
Some financial decisions remain to be made for the upcoming year. The county chose not to put any of the money it received from the American Rescue Plan toward ongoing annual expenses and will be exploring other options for what they can spend it on, including possible assistance to local nonprofits.
Bolander said the county will take the time to be thoughtful about how to use the money.
“We’ve got to be careful because if you spend it the wrong way, (the federal government) can take it back,” Bolander said.
The county also needs to negotiate with the city of Greenfield to decide how much it will spend on Greenfield-Hancock County Animal Management, which is jointly funded. Greenfield submitted a budget of $784,000 for the department in 2022. The county has been trying for several years to decrease the amount that it spends on the service. Last year, it spent $390,000, covering about 50% of the department’s expenses with the exception of costs associated with its new building, which Greenfield is footing the bill for.
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Sheriff’s deputies will receive an 18% raise in 2022.
Most other employees will get a 7% raise.
Most elected officials will get a $4,200 raise, with the exception of county council members, who will get $3,100.
Non-elected department heads will also get $4,200, unless they do not supervise anyone, in which case they will get the 7% raise.
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