MONEY TALK – Carroll County Sheriff Andy Dickson presents his proposed 2022-23 fiscal year budgets during the April 7 Budget Committee meeting.
Carroll County Sheriff Andy Dickson presented his proposed 2022-23 fiscal year budgets for the Sheriff’s Department and jail during an April 7 meeting of the County Budget Committee, and those budgets included a requested three-percent raise for deputies, jailors, and dispatchers.
As Dickson detailed to the committee, his proposed Sheriff’s Department budget is up a total of $110,905 over the current fiscal year budget, and the proposed jail budget is up $83,740 over 2021-22. The sheriff said the much smaller Drug Fund and Sex Offender Registry budgets will be staying basically the same.
Dickson said that higher pay rates offered by other police and sheriff’s departments in the area make it difficult to keep deputies, particularly with inflation and the cost of living going up.
The sheriff also said that he has been having high turnover among dispatchers, and new state regulations requiring that at least two dispatchers be on duty at all times have made it difficult to keep those shifts filled. Dickson added that he is going to try to move toward more fulltime dispatcher positions as the full-timers tend to stay longer.
“I don’t know if this is the answer, but I’ve got to try something,” said Dickson.
The sheriff pointed out that many of his employees have put themselves at risk in exposing themselves to covid-positive people during the pandemic and mentioned that Jail Administrator Frank Rezac recently died from the virus.
“He (Rezac) was well-respected across the state, and he will be hard to replace,” said Dickson. “We’re going to have some trying times ahead.”
Committee member Steve Austin asked Dickson about the $6,000 bonus for deputies that he included in the proposed Sheriff’s Department budget on top of the proposed three-percent salary increase – well above the $2,000 bonus the committee has previously discussed giving all county employees. Dickson admitted that he intentionally shot a little high regarding the bonuses.
“All I can do is tell my guys that I went to bat for them,” said the sheriff.
Committee chairman Darrell Ridgely said that they would take Dickson’s budget proposals under advisement.
“I appreciate you listening to my gripe session,” said Dickson.
Committee members continued discussions after the sheriff had left the room, and ideas regarding giving pay increases based on merit or at the discretion of department heads, an extra $2,000 retroactive bonus for all employees, and a special 1.5 percent salary increase for just Sheriff’s Department and jail employees were all batted around. No decision, however, was made, and an April 21 meeting date was set to continue discussions on all the departmental budgets.
The committee is hoping to present a new proposed county budget before the full Legislative Body in June.
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In other business:
•The committee met with Carroll County Director of Schools Johnny McAdams, who said that he has not yet been able to work up a proposed budget because the state has not yet given him figures regarding state funding for his school district. McAdams did say that he is going to have to factor in rising gas prices and the rising cost of replacing aging school buses.
•The committee approved three budget amendments: one to account for a $35 grant for the Health Department, $47,090 for maintenance costs and accumulated paid leave in the Highway Department, and $805 in line item adjustments in the Highway Department.
•County Mayor Joseph Butler was authorized to pursue a HAVA grant for equipment purchases.
•The committee voted that department heads need to turn in their purchase orders for the current fiscal year by April 29.
