Cass County committee recommends reclassifying four sheriff task-force roles to detective pay grade

A Cass County committee recommended that four temporary sheriff task-force positions be reclassified to a detective pay grade while employees serve in those assignments.

Tracy, presenting the personnel item to the committee, said the change responds to a gap in the demotion policy and to evolving duties in task-force assignments. "If we have a temporary position, that someone is promoted into a temporary position, when they're demoted, they don't go back down to have a cap of midpoint. They would go back to the step in the grade that they were before had they not left the position," Tracy said, explaining the policy intent and the need to align pay and demotion treatment.

Sheriff Jonner told the committee the four task-force roles — positions aligned with the U.S. Postal Service task force, a Marshals task force, the state narcotics task force and a metro-area street crimes detail — now perform investigative duties equivalent to detectives. "They write search warrants, they take over on scenes ... act as the case agent," he said, describing duties that include working with prosecutors, handling subpoenas and managing confidential informants. He asked that officers assigned to those roles be temporarily reclassified to a detective (investigator) pay grade while serving in the assignment.

Committee members pressed procedural and budget questions. The sheriff and Tracy said the change is intended to be FTE neutral and that the sheriff's office would absorb pay differences within its current budget lines. Tracy said the county typically makes pay changes via the July budget cycle, but the committee would ask the commission at its second March meeting to consider the recommendation with a possible effective date of April 1; she also said funds were available in "Jesse's" budget to cover the change.

A committee member moved to recommend the reclassification to the commission; the chair noted one affected employee, Justin Phillips, who serves as a liaison and might abstain. The committee approved the recommendation by voice vote and will forward it to the commission for final action. The committee also confirmed that officers working in the temporary investigator classification would remain eligible for overtime.

The action follows an earlier change the committee made to the demotion policy to accommodate temporary positions. The committee did not record numeric vote tallies in the transcript; the recommendations move next to the commission for a final decision.