County Commission approves pay plan increase for sheriff’s department

By a 2-1 vote, the Cole County Commission approved a pay plan from Sheriff John Wheeler to address what he calls "a staffing crisis" at the sheriff's department.

The plan would raise the starting pay for a deputy about 25 percent; for a jailer, it would rise about 20 percent.

Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman and Western District Commissioner Harry Otto voted for the plan while Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher voted against it, saying he wasn't against the staff getting more money, but wanted more time to look over Wheeler's proposal.

As of Tuesday, Wheeler said they have 22 positions open, 13 are full-time and nine are part-time with the majority of those openings in the jail.

"I'm looking for experienced people," Wheeler said. "All the law enforcement agencies in the area are sharing the same pool of potential employees. I've actually had people come tell me they'd like to work for me. But if they can get $10,000 more some place else, they'll go there."

When hiring, Wheeler said, he competes with the Missouri Highway Patrol, Boone County Sheriff's Department, Jefferson City and Columbia police departments, and the Cole and Callaway County circuit courts. These are all places where Wheeler has seen members of his staff go to in recent months.

The current starting salary for a Cole County deputy is $38,800. However, with the plan approved Tuesday, it would jump to $48,000, starting May 1. Wheeler said that's still low as most of the agencies he's losing people to are starting at $51,000-$53,000.

For a jailer, base pay would go from $35,000 to $42,000.

"I had one person, this past pay period, that turned in 57 hours of overtime," Wheeler said. "Currently, the overtime rate at the jail is at 65 percent. I've got to do something because I'm burning my people out. I'm even thinking about waiving the requirement for deputies to live within Cole County because I have nobody applying."

Activating this plan starting May 1 would cost $406,622. Wheeler already has a salary surplus of $240,622 due to vacancies which would be used to fund the pay increases this year along with other sheriff's department funds.

Wheeler said the International Association of Chiefs of Police suggests 85-90 percent of a department's total budget should go toward personnel. Currently, the sheriff's department has 54.6 percent of its budget going toward personnel.

Next year, when the funding from the county's law enforcement sales tax goes down from half-a-cent to three-eighths of a cent because bonds to pay for the construction of the county jail will have been paid off, Wheeler said he will lose $1.8 million in revenue. However, he said the debt service will reduce $2.9 million so total revenue after that will be $1.1 million and $661,243 of that amount will fund the increase in pay.

Wheeler will also be doing compression raises as a way to address when newly hired, less experienced employees earn close to what current employees make. The plan calls for no such raises for those who have worked up to two years with the department, a $1,200 raise for those who've been with the department for two to four years and $2,400 for those who have been with the department for four or more years. This would be on top of the base pay for their positions.

"Our salaries aren't good, and we're trying to fix that," Wheeler said. "I can't have a starting deputy making the same as a corporal."

Base pay for a corporal goes from $43,600 to $55,000; for a sergeant it goes from $48,800 to $62,000; for a lieutenant it goes from $56,000 to $69,000 and for a captain the base goes from $60,000 to $76,000.

Starting next year, Wheeler would also do step raises, which would be effective on the anniversary date of a person's employment. For those who have worked at the department after two years, four years and six years there would be a $1,200 raise.

"The sales tax is coming in seven percent higher than what had been expected so that will happen," Wheeler said.

Bushman noted Jefferson City passed a quarter-cent public safety sales tax in November, which the city began collecting on April 1, so he's not surprised people jump to work at the police department.

"If the money is there, I've got to get more money to my civilian workers too, so I plan to bring that up for next year," Wheeler said. "I told my staff that I'm working on the pay for the future. I can't deal with the past. We still have people making as much in salary that have been here for four years as someone who's been here for 15 years. That's not fair, but I have to try and fix the pay for the future and the way to do that is there's people that won't get as big a raise as others," he said.

Wheeler said he's already had to reduce services out in the county due to the staffing shortage.

"I had to get rid of the Taos/Wardsville position, paid for by those communities to enforce traffic and other laws in those municipalities, because I can't fill that position," Wheeler said. "The school resource officers will have to work as road deputies this summer."

As of March 2021, Wheeler said they had 3,800 calls for service and in March of this year they had 5,200 calls. There's also been talks during the past year about potentially expanding the capacity of the jail, but commissioners and Wheeler agreed that's a moot point if they can't get staff for the current jail.

"Our call volume is going up, and we're not even into the busy part of the year," Wheeler said. "I need help, and I have the money to make this plan work right now."

Wheeler said he's proud of the professionalism of his staff, especially in the jail.

"I'm impressed with the lieutenants, sergeants and corporals we have down there and how they have been able to motivate the staff and keep them coming back," Wheeler said. "There's been a few times that we were down to a minimum of five staff, and we had 157 in custody. That's two in the control room positions and just three for the rest of the areas."

Wheeler said having five staff on duty was the minimum number that the U.S. marshals would accept for the jail to house federal prisoners. He said if he had been in charge at the time he would have said "no" to that proposal.

"From now on, every year when we go into budget, we must look at our personnel first," Wheeler concluded.

In other action, the commissioners:

• Were told by officials with the Missouri State Parks Department the development potential of the Rock Island Trail is just as great as what the state parks division has seen with the Katy Trail.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources accepted ownership of the Rock Island corridor, a 140-mile stretch of former rail line from Beaufort to Windsor, in December after the Missouri Central Railroad Company, a subsidiary of Ameren Missouri, donated its right, title and interest in the corridor to the state.

In January, Gov. Mike Parson proposed using American Rescue Plan Act funds to develop a 78-mile stretch of the corridor from Eugene to Beaufort. Last week, the House passed its version of the state budget, which included $70.7 million for funding to make that section of the Rock Island Trail a reality.

About 6-8 miles of the Rock Island Corridor is located in Cole County in the areas of Eugene and Henley.

• Heard an update on efforts to bring a soccer complex to an area near the Special Olympics headquarters off Christy Drive.

Kyle Berendzen, a volunteer member of the board of United Capital City Soccer Club, said the complex would have four to six fields located on nearly 21 acres in the area where an old rock quarry is currently located.

He said they began working on this project roughly 2½ years ago, and it really started to come together in the last year.