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Sheriff says jail revenues could fund pay raises as department struggles to recruit
Summary
Sheriff Hatch told commissioners that recruiting for jail and patrol positions is difficult at current pay rates and that increasing occupancy at the local detention facility could generate revenue to fund a proposed 10% pay raise for sheriff's office employees.
Sheriff Hatch addressed the budget workshop with a request tied to staffing and retention: he proposed a 10% pay increase for sheriff—s office employees and said the jail could produce additional revenue if occupancy were increased.
"I know that we can generate another $100,000 a year there in those revenues," the sheriff said, describing how housing out-of-county inmates could offset personnel expenses. He also warned that the department has had trouble recruiting applicants for open positions, despite openly advertised wages and benefits; one jailer position that pays $19 an hour had no applicants after several weeks on the market.
Commissioners questioned the ripple effects if the jail were filled from external contracts (utilities, food, medical costs) and asked about the operational capacity to house outside inmates; the sheriff and jail administrator said they could be selective about the kinds of inmates accepted (excluding medically intensive or high-transport cases) and that utilities and staffing would not scale linearly in a way that undermines the net revenue potential.
Why it matters: Public-safety staffing shortages affect response capacity and the sheriff—s ability to maintain required services. The sheriff—s revenue proposal would shift some operating costs to fee-for-service revenues rather than the tax base, but commissioners noted limits and reputational concerns about housing out-of-county inmates.
Next steps: Commissioners asked staff to take the sheriff—s staffing and rollover-vacation payout numbers and revisit them as part of a more comprehensive payroll and contingency discussion for the coming budget.
