Wicomico committee unanimously recommends staged raise for sheriff’s salary to $141,000

The Wicomico County Salary Review Committee voted unanimously Oct. 22 to recommend raising the county sheriff’s base salary from $117,000 by $6,000 per year over four years, reaching $141,000 at the end of that period.

The recommendation, which the committee will submit to the County Council as a formal proposal, grew out of a two-hour discussion about the sheriff’s duties, staffing pressures, overtime burdens and comparisons with other Maryland counties.

Committee members said they considered multiple factors in framing the recommendation: Wicomico’s sheriff’s office performs patrol, courtroom security, airport policing and other duties that in some counties are split among multiple agencies; the department’s rank-and-file and command pay; and recent and projected increases in starting pay for deputies in neighboring counties. "I do have approximately 100 sworn armed sheriff's deputies that are making, split second life and death situations every single day," Sheriff Mike Lewis told the committee during the Oct. 22 meeting. "And, ultimately, I'm responsible for them.""We are down about seven deputies,"…