Sheriff's office asks for lieutenant pay adjustment and higher detention pay amid recruitment concerns

The Brazos County Sheriff's Office presented personnel requests Aug. 13 asking Commissioners Court to raise salary ranges for lieutenants, investigators and detention officers and to transfer grant-funded positions to align recruiting where it is most needed.

Chief Stewart told the court the request is part of a multiyear staffing and leadership plan aimed at keeping pay competitive and preserving internal promotion incentives. "This is about more than dollars. It's about stability, respond when it matters most," Stewart said, arguing that a targeted adjustment to lieutenant pay would reduce pay compression with sergeant ranks and encourage promotion from within.

Details presented to the court included a requested lift in lieutenant per-pay range from $4,662 to $5,235.05, which the county presenter said represents roughly $74,000 in additional cost for four lieutenants in the sheriff's administration. The sheriff's jail requested an identical adjustment for its four lieutenants. The jail also proposed raising the detention officer salary range from $31.43 to $33.81 per hour for 103 positions; the presenter cited an estimated cost of about $547,488 for that change. The jail proposed increasing an administrative secretary position by about $19,000. Presenters described the detective/investigator hourly range moving from $49.04 to $50.24 with an estimated $25,000 cost.

The sheriff's office noted two internal transfers: moving a recruiting specialist from the administration building to the jail at zero net cost, and transferring grant-funded positions tied to a human-trafficking task force (the presenters said $153,940 would cover remaining salary and benefits for the current grant period). Staff said the grant is expected to cover about $90,000 next year and that the sheriff would later request county funding to absorb two positions when grant support ends. The presenter summarized total requests for the sheriff's office administration as $253,004.82.

Commissioners asked about recruitment sources and attrition. Stewart said the office prefers promoting from within but wants to make lieutenant pay sufficiently attractive to preserve a career path because, he said, "there has to be some kind of plan for somebody that's early on in their career seeing that there's a path here for them and not not elsewhere." He told the court lieutenant attrition to other agencies is currently low and that the main issue is pay compression with sergeants at the top of their bands.

No formal motions or votes were taken during the workshop; the sheriff's personnel requests were placed into the group of items county staff asked the court to prioritize when preparing the proposed budget.