Sheriff deputy pay raises nixed by Quorum Court

Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck left Tuesday night’s Sebastian County quorum court budget meeting feeling “saddened” by what he saw. An overwhelming majority of court members voted down his request to increase salaries for his juvenile and adult detention center employees, despite having five juvenile detention officers and 29 adult detention deputies earning well below the $29,050 midpoint.

Also during the Tuesday meeting, the quorum court voted to remove the $4 million earmark for the aquatic facility project the county was planning with the city of Fort Smith. There will be a joint meeting on Dec. 12 to further discuss the future of the project.

The refusal provide pay increases also came in spite of a 2010 study by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) that found the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office to be “understaffed and underpaid,” Hollenbeck said, noting that most employees have not seen a merit increase in “eight to 10 years.”

“Our deputies earn $24,000 per year. They work in a hostile work environment. While you and I sleep at night, they’re guarding what society deems to be dangerous individuals. Twenty four (thousand dollars) and change is deficient when it comes to what we need to pay professional law enforcement.”

Continuing, Hollenbeck said: “It’s important to have a competitive wage to entice qualified personnel. For a while we were losing more than 50% of our employees over the first year, and most of that was due to the combination of a lack of pay and the challenging nature of the job. These guys and gals are true heroes, and it’s important we pay them a salary worthy of a modern professional sheriff’s department.”

Further adding to the shock of Hollenbeck and dissenting court member Linda Murry was the quorum court’s refusal as a whole in light of improvements Hollenbeck has made since taking office.

“I voted in favor of it (the increase), because this has been Hollenbeck’s first year, and he and his short staff have already generated more revenue and cut their expenses, while bringing up their standards, efficiency, service and visibility to the public,” Murry said, noting she was “shellshocked” by the vote.

Since Hollenbeck took office, Murry noted, the following improvements have been made:
• Renegotiation of food contracts from $1.14 per meal (times three meals per day) to $1.06. Resulting savings: approximately $104,000;
• Renegotiation of housing rate for the U.S. Marshals’ Office from $38 per day to $53. Revenue increase: $456,000;
• Renegotiation of contracts in which the county jail houses inmates under the jurisdiction of immigration and customs enforcement increased from approximately $81,600 per year to about $127,000. Revenue increase: $45,400; and,
• Reduction in the jail’s medical services from $180,000 per year to $118,000 by hiring part-time personnel instead of contracting with an outside nursing agency. Resulting savings: $62,000.

Hollenbeck also notes the programs his staff has managed in the last year have reduced the jail’s inmate-per-day average from 500 to around 320.

“We’ve worked hard with the Director of Inmate Management to reduce the population of non-violent offenders and saved countless of thousands of dollars in doing so. We’ve also made it safer for our deputies to work here, and a lot of the credit goes to those deputies and the courts and judge’s office and all the other departments that are working side-by-side with us,” Hollenbeck said.

In all, the Sheriff’s Department, under Hollenbeck’s guidance, has managed to beat projected revenues for 2011 by $1.3 million. The requested pay increases, which were refused Tuesday night, and which will not be making it into the final budget for vote on Dec. 20, total approximately $290,000, less than half the amount of resulting savings and increased revenues listed above, and around 22.3% of the projected revenue overage.

Emails and phone calls made on Wednesday to the eight quorum court members, who voted against the proposal, were not immediately returned.

When asked what his feelings were about the cause of the refusal, Hollenbeck said, “I’m very disappointed that it was, and I couldn’t answer that. That’s something you would have to ask quorum court members or other elected officials not approving of it. I know it’s tough to be a good steward of the tax payers’ money being a quorum court member. We’re working hard on our end to save as much money as we can and be frugal. On the other hand, you have to treat employees like they’re your most valuable asset, and until we start doing that, you’re going to continue to see many of the problems you’ve seen in the past, whether that’s inside the jail or in any other county entity. While it’s sometimes true that you get what you pay for, I think we’ve got great men and women that work at our detention centers. I just think we should treat them in a manner that is equal to what they deserve.”

The issue may once again arise once the county completes its $43,000 salary survey slated for February 2012. Until then, Hollenbeck said his office would get its job done no matter what.

“We just certainly hope the quorum court understands how important it is to treat their employees important,” Hollenbeck said.