Polk County approves recruitment and retention incentives for deputies and sergeants; adds licensure pay for solid-waste operators

Polk County commissioners voted to approve three memorandums of understanding that offer hiring and retention incentives for law-enforcement staff and add licensure premium pay for solid-waste operators.

County staff presented the three MOUs at the board meeting and said the packages would be paid from state public-safety funds provided to the county in February 2023 and existing departmental funds. The board approved the MOUs by voice vote; commissioners did not record a roll-call tally during the meeting.

The first MOU covers deputies represented by LELS. County staff said the deputies group includes 18 positions and that the package uses a three-part structure: a $5,000 sign-on/retention payment per position (paid in increments and conditioned on successful completion of probation), a $10,000 recruitment incentive pool, and a smaller applicant-referral payment tied to successful completion of interviews. Staff described the gross totals in the packet as approximately $102,500 for the deputies group and said the money would come from the public-safety fund. Commissioners asked staff to confirm how payroll taxes and withholding would be handled before payments are disbursed.

The second MOU uses a similar formula for the county’s LELS sergeants and supervisors group. Staff said that group includes six positions and that the packet lists $5,000 per position for sign-on/retention plus the $10,000 recruitment pool and referral amounts, for a packet total of $42,500 coming from the same fund source.

The third agreement covers operating engineers in the county’s solid-waste operations. Staff described a set of hourly licensure premiums intended to keep and grow in-house expertise needed to operate the county’s incinerator and other boilers. "These licenses and obtaining these licenses are very crucial to continue to operate our incinerator," county staff said during the presentation. The MOUs list incremental premiums that staff described in the packet as ranging from about $2 up to $7 per hour depending on the certification or license achieved.

Commissioners asked several operational questions during discussion: how the incentive payments would be taxed or reported (payroll check with withholding versus 1099-style reporting), whether the MOUs had been shared with union representatives (staff said they had), and whether employees would need to ratify the agreements (staff said any changes tied to collective-bargaining agreements would require union action). Staff said payments would be distributed in installments tied to probation completion and scheduled payment windows rather than as single lump sums.

Actions and follow-up directed by the board included staff confirmation of payroll-tax treatment and continued communication with union representatives. The board approved all three MOUs by voice vote during the meeting.