Vermont sheriffs outline staffing, compensation and dispatch concerns to Senate Government Operations Committee

Sheriffs and their central office staff briefed the Senate Government Operations Committee on Jan. 21 about staffing pressures, compensation changes and several systemwide issues that the association says need legislative attention.

The meeting focused on three near-term concerns the Vermont Sheriff's Association raised for the committee: (1) compensation and a multi-year effort that produced a retirement provision for deputies that went into effect this month; (2) a compensation bill under development (including a statutory 5% contract-augmentation mechanism under Title 24) intended to improve pay parity with other law enforcement; and (3) a state dispatch study that the sheriffs say raises difficult governance and funding questions.

The sheriffs presented their remarks to the committee as a statewide, operational briefing rather than to seek a specific bill at the hearing. "Being sheriff is kinda like a three-legged stool. You need to be a politician, you need to be a businessman or business person, and you need to be a law enforcement officer," said Sheriff Mark Anderson, Windham County, president of the Vermont Sheriff's Association. Anderson described a range of services sheriffs provide to the Agency of Human Services and local communities, including transporting inmates from out-of-state facilities back to Vermont, transporting youth for Department for Children and Families cases, and assisting the Department of Mental Health with high-risk medical transports.

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