Employee pay, especially for law enforcement, continues to be a critical topic of discussion by Halifax County commissioners with no long-term solution as of yet.

On Monday the board decided to table a pay study proposal until its first meeting in March. The vote was 5-1 in favor of tabling the matter with Commissioner Carolyn Johnson casting the single dissenting vote.

That pay study presented by Human Resources Director Renee Perry was one in which the county could pay in thirds at $17,000 for each year or pay a one-time amount of $54,000. Dividing the study into thirds would make the study a three-year process and Perry said the company she recommended — Piedmont Triad Regional Council — would not be able to begin the process until October and the final results would not be presented to the board until April of 2023.

Three years not an option

That timeline for deputy pay is not an option, Commissioner Patrick Qualls said. “I’m not big on pay studies. I think we need to address one thing immediately for the safety and security of this county which is the lower echelon of our sheriff’s department,” he said. “We can’t wait until 2023 to do that. If we do, we're going to have two deputies patrolling the county. We cannot wait that long. It has to be done now.”

Qualls said the board knows what needs to be done. “When you get up in the morning and you put a bullet-proof vest on to go to work (you) deserve to get paid for it and not at a lower rate than everybody around you.”

Qualls said he has confidence the HR department could do the work internally.

Later in the discussion Qualls said, “If we tell the sheriff’s department we’re going to put this off until 2023 you’re going to be without coverage in Halifax County. If we put it off until 2023 we’re in trouble.”

Perry said the matter was discussed at the board’s December retreat. “We still have several vacancies countywide. The vacancies are mainly due to salaries and employees leaving to go to counties that pay a little bit more than what we pay.”

Perry said RTRC would compare starting salaries with those that are in the county’s market area. The board would have the option to communicate which local governments they would like to be compared. “They would also look at our internal equity to make sure we are not creating adjustments that would create more salary compression than we already have. The compression has been created over time due to years we had no salary increase.”

Tabling the matter

Commissioner Rives Manning, who made the motion to table the matter, said, “I don’t believe we need this study and we have enough brain power to work it out.”

Johnson said, however, she was on the other end of the spectrum. “I think we do need the study. I also agree with Patrick that we do need to look at law enforcement and make some recommendations for them. I also think we need to look at our other employees. We’ve been kicking this football around for a long time and we’ve been saying we can do it internally but we haven’t done it internally. I think we need to get an agency in here to look all of our departments and come up with a rival plan in which we’re treating everyone fairly.”

Commissioner Linda Brewer said all county employees who are not in upper management are underpaid. “I know what the pay scales are throughout the area. I think that the sheriff’s department issue is critical. It’s rarely a month that we meet that we don’t have someone leaving there. On the other side that’s true of DSS also and the health department. We’ve got to find a way to address our critical needs but at the same time realize we’ve got these other employees that if we’re not careful they’re going to go to another county and do the same job for more money also.”

Commissioner John Smith said the board has to look at what the county can afford to do. “Regardless of what the study says, if we can’t afford to do it then we have thrown away $54,000.”

Moving the needle

Board Chair Vernon Bryant said while a difficult task, “This is what we’ve really got to do. We’ve got to move this needle. I don’t know the answer. I don’t know about the study. We’ve got to move that needle. Law enforcement is a priority but as Ms. Johnson and Ms. Brewer have pointed out, the others are important too.”

Said Qualls of law enforcement pay, “We’re $8,000 below the pay scale for Enfield, Roanoke Rapids, Scotland Neck. People go where the money is. Bring them up to what EMS pays. We've been talking about this for years and we have never done anything for them.”

Qualls said the board needs to address the most pressing issue and that is law enforcement pay in the county. “Let’s address what we know is the problem in the beginning. We have failed to do it.”

Interim County Manager Dia Denton said although she could argue both ways, “If I had to recommend right now I would recommend you do it because we don’t really know how far we really are off. At the same time we know we’re far off.”

She said county staff could do a three-year plan and split the positions, starting with law enforcement. “In the sheriff’s office you would have to do it department wide so you don’t compress that salary scale any more than it already is.”

Denton said county staff have a 3 percent cost of living adjustment for all county employees included in the upcoming fiscal year budget. “If you were to do something for the positions I would leave that 3 percent and add whatever percentage you want and what we can afford or make plans to afford for at least one-third of those positions.”

Johnson said she had no problem starting with the sheriff’s office. “But once that is heard and understood then the employees are going to want to know when is it going to be our turn?”

In making the motion to table, Manning said for the last several years he has tried to get a proposal through that would increase the salaries of the lower level sheriff’s office employees and hold the upper level to a much lower percentage.

Qualls said he was OK with delaying a decision until next month. “But I’m not fine to kick the can down the road with law enforcement any longer than next month. We’ve kicked this for four years since I’ve been a commissioner. We’ve talked about doing something and we never have.”