Subcommittee backs staffing, legislative changes and audits to clarify state supplemental pay

The Subcommittee on Supplemental Pay voted to include several requests and study items in a report to the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance after testimony from Department of Public Safety (DPS) staff, firefighters, municipal and university police representatives and state oversight officials.

The subcommittee moved, without recorded objections, to ask Appropriations and Senate Finance to fund additional DPS positions to administer state supplemental pay; to submit a summary of recommendations from supplemental pay boards and state agencies; to consider legislation creating a deputy sheriff supplemental pay statute; to ask the legislative auditor to audit fire departments’ supplemental pay rosters; and to further study and clarify definitions of eligible classes (law enforcement and firefighters).

Those items follow multiple presentations and recommendations. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Burns of the DPS State Police told the panel his office supports clearer statutory language on eligibility and appeals and requested additional staffing to administer the program. He said the department would like an amendment to HB 1 to add personnel and associated costs for…