Sheriff warns of staffing losses and asks for raises as commissioners debate removing holiday overtime pay

Sheriff Russell told the First Response Services Committee that the county is losing deputies and corrections staff to neighboring jurisdictions offering substantially higher pay and urged commissioners to consider a 10% raise for departmental employees; the committee also heard heated objections to a personnel-committee proposal to exclude holidays from overtime-calculation, which critics said would reduce take-home pay for already hard-to-retain staff.

Sheriff Russell described recent departures and pay competition: “3 deputies have quit in the last month and a half... The 1 went to Gallup to start out $10 more an hour, and the 1 went to Lafayette started out $3 something more an hour with guaranteed raise of 50¢ a year for next 8 years plus cost of living.” He said the county’s starting correctional-officer pay of $16.68 is well behind nearby counties and requested a 10% across-the-board increase for his employees, noting that even that would likely leave the department behind some neighbors.

A commissioner strongly opposed proposed language from the personnel committee that would remove holidays from overtime calculations, saying the change would cut pay for sheriff’s department and EMS employees. The commissioner said personnel voted to send the change to the full commission and that committee members who earlier opposed the measure were removed from the personnel committee: “Basically... the personnel committee voted all but 1 to send it to the full body to remove a particular sentence in this new wording... This simply takes away anywhere from 52¢ an hour up to a dollar an hour for sheriff department employees and EMS. This is unacceptable.”

Another commissioner said removing the holiday overtime provision would worsen retention and vowed not to support the proposal when it comes before the full commission: “I don't see where that's a good idea... I know I'm... not gonna vote for it.”

Sheriff Russell also raised operational costs tied to housing and transporting inmates from prison cases and out-of-county holds, including unpaid medical bills for inmates who require hospital transport while in custody. He described an instance in which the department received a $6,000 hospital bill after transporting a person who seized while in custody.

The committee did not adopt a final policy on holiday overtime at the meeting; the personnel-committee proposal was reported and opponents signaled they would oppose it at full commission hearings. The sheriff's request for pay increases was recorded as a budget concern to be considered in upcoming budget deliberations.