Sheriff’s office seeks renewal and restructuring of corrections sign-on bonuses amid staffing and overtime pressures

The Spokane County sheriff’s office told the Board of County Commissioners on June 24 it seeks renewal and a restructuring of sign-on bonuses for corrections officers and related positions to address persistent vacancies and high overtime costs.

Sheriff’s office staff said the sign-on program has been in place since February 2021 and has supported hiring 84 people under the bonus program; total cost since 2021 is about $656,000. The office reported 20 active corrections-officer vacancies at the time of the briefing (218 authorized corrections positions), with another three expected to leave in the coming weeks; the office said it continues to operate a rolling training pipeline and that about 15 employees were in training at the time of the briefing.

Proposal details: the sheriff’s office requested a change in payout timing for the $10,000 corrections sign-on: shift from two half-year payments to a three-step schedule (day 1: $3,000; mid-year: $3,000; end of year 1: $4,000) for entry and lateral corrections officers. The office asked for a larger increase for cook positions — from $3,500 to $10,000 — describing the cook role as the hardest to fill; sheriff’s staff reported three cook vacancies and said they had received 154 cook applications in the year but had hired none to date because of no-shows, failed interviews or incomplete background paperwork.

Staffing and overtime context: the department said its overtime spending approaches $4 million annually and that continued hiring is intended to reduce overtime. The office estimated that if vacancies fell into the mid-teens, staffing levels would be much improved; however, high training demands, required in-service hours and transport duties continue to generate overtime. Corrections staff projected hiring about 12 new corrections officers in the remainder of 2025 in a best-case hiring scenario.

HR and budget context: county HR (Ashley Cloud) said the county continues to support the sign-on bonuses, especially increasing the cook incentive because of scarce applicants and drop-off in application completion. Staff indicated the sign-on program is an annual renewal request; commissioners asked county budget staff whether the payment would affect the county’s salary-recapture strategy and were told the county was not currently planning to recapture vacancy dollars tied to those positions but would monitor the budget and adjust if needed.

Policy tweaks: the briefing also covered a related lateral incentive for deputies (accrued paid time off rather than cash) that county leaders proposed to modify; the sheriff requested expanding eligibility from five years of prior experience down to two years for the lateral vacation/sick-time incentive, a change HR cautioned could increase administrative complexity if tiered accruals were introduced. HR flagged Workday implementation complexity and the administrative burden of creating multiple leave plans if the board authorized tiered accruals.

Next steps: staff indicated the sign-on policy and contract amendments would be placed on the board’s consent agenda at an upcoming legislative meeting if commissioners were agreeable; commissioners asked staff to return with more data on lateral versus entry hires, year-by-year sign-on payouts and the plan for funding the renewals.

Ending: commissioners asked for follow-up budget and hiring data; no formal board action to renew the bonuses was recorded in the briefing itself, and staff said the program request was for annual renewal.