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Sheriff Tanner asks council to raise starting pay, cites competition and retention; presents $3.2M general-fund increase request
Summary
Sheriff P.J. Tanner told the Beaufort County Council the sheriff's office is losing deputies to better‑paying local, state and federal employers and asked the county to raise starting pay to about $60,000 effectively by combining an entry‑level raise and the draft 3% COLA.
Sheriff P.J. Tanner told the council the sheriff's office has persistent vacancies and competing employers and asked the county to increase law‑enforcement starting pay and adjust pay brackets to retain deputies and other public‑safety staff.
Tanner gave a short history of retention and pay in the sheriff's office and said the county competes for recruits with state agencies (e.g., SLED, highway patrol), neighboring municipalities (Bluffton, Port Royal), and non‑law enforcement employers (for example, some service‑industry jobs and federal agencies). He said a starting deputy salary presented in the draft budget would be raised to about $58,000 and, with the proposed 3% COLA included in the plan, would reach a $60,000 effective starting salary. Tanner said the proposed adjustments would increase pay for the county's less‑tenured cohorts (0–5 years, 5–10 years, 10–15 years) to improve recruitment and retention; he stressed the county issues protective equipment and trains deputies and therefore must pay for that investment.
Budget staff Suzanne gave an outline of the sheriff's line‑item request: staff told the council the sheriff's total expenditure increase request was about $4.1 million (rounded) with the general fund portion roughly $3.2 million; staff said the request as presented would affect roughly 139 employees across the sheriff's office and dispatch. The sheriff's office reported roughly 28 current vacancies (numbers fluctuate as the office hires, employees transfer, or retire).
Council members and staff discussed alternatives. Council asked whether a flat‑dollar adjustment for employees (for example, a flat $3,000 across the board) versus a 3% COLA could be modeled; staff said they would run both scenarios and return with numbers. Suzanne said the administration had built a 3% COLA into the county draft budget; council asked for a comparison of a flat dollar option vs. the percentage approach before final decisions.
Tanner emphasized that while long‑tenured deputies near retirement were not the main target of the proposal, the pay adjustments should reduce turnover among less‑tenured deputies and dispatchers and make the sheriff's office competitive in hiring. He detailed that neighboring agencies’ starting pay in the region ranged from about $55,000–$59,000 and said without adjustment Beaufort County risks losing newly trained deputies to other agencies or to state and federal positions.
Ending: Staff and the sheriff agreed to provide detail modeling for alternative COLA approaches and to finalize vacancy and impact numbers for council review before the next budget committee meeting.
