Barrow Journal

After receiving feedback from county commissioners, county manager Mike Renshaw said Tuesday he would work to budget for full implementation of a pay classification and salary study’s recommendations for Barrow County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center employees in Fiscal Year 2019.
The board of commissioners held its second budget work session Tuesday afternoon as the county works on crafting and adopting a budget for FY2019, which begins July 1.
At an April 10 work session, Renshaw recommended implementing the 3.4-percent across-the-board pay increases for BCSO employees — recommended by the Condrey and Associates study — which would have an estimated $315,482 impact on the budget. But he did not recommend an estimated $400,000 equity adjustment to counteract pay compression, though he did suggest budgeting for over $150,000 in merit-pay increases.
But after a lengthy discussion Tuesday of three options Renshaw presented to them, commissioners directed the county manager to pursue full implementation of the study.
Renshaw said the study’s implementation should help with attracting and retaining higher-quality deputies and reducing overtime expenses.
Sheriff Jud Smith has strongly advocated for raises to make his deputies’ and detention center officers’ pay more competitive with surrounding law enforcement agencies. He gave a prepared statement Tuesday to the board and expressed frustration with the idea of not fully implementing the study’s recommendations.
He said implementation of the pay raises recommended by the study would pay his deputies in the 75th percentile compared to the roughly 20 other agencies that Condrey and Associates examined. He added that the equity adjustment was “vital” to making the study a success.
“If it’s not implemented correctly, then we begin the vicious cycle yet again of another broken compensation system,” Smith said. “You cannot sit back and only implement parts of a study and expect to solve your issues with hiring and retaining employees.”
See more in the April 25 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.