Cole County sheriff looks to address ‘staffing crisis’
JEFFERSON, Mo. (KMIZ)
Cole County's sheriff told county commissioners Tuesday that his department is in a "staffing crisis."
The commission held a meeting Tuesday where Sheriff John Wheeler shared his plan to combat the staffing shortage for the Cole County Sheriff's Department.
Wheeler started the meeting saying "the bad news is that currently, the Cole County Sheriff's Department is in a staffing crisis." Wheeler said the department is down 22 employees, 13 are full-time positions and nine are part-time.
Wheeler attributes the shortage to a low base salary, especially in comparison to nearby departments which are offering better wages. Burnout due to overtime work is also another contributing factor.
"The problem we have here is we're competing with the same people because there's so many law enforcement agencies," Wheeler said. The current based salary is $38,000. Wheeler said that this is low in comparison to other area departments, and proposed a plan to increase wages across the board for both new and current employees.
The proposed plan would make base pay:
- Jailers, $42,000
- Deputy, $48,000
- Corporal, $55,000
- Sergeant, $62,000
- Lieutenant, $69,000
- Captain, $76,000
Current employee raises on top of the base pay
- 0-2 years would receive no increase
- 0-4 years would receive a $1,200 pay increase
- 4+ years would receive a $2,400 pay increase
Wheeler said he had one employee recently reach 57 hours of overtime, and since 2022 started, the department has already used 65% of its budgeted jail overtime.
Wheeler said his plan would cost $661,000 for the salary adjustment for the year. Wheeler and the Cole County Commission agreed that the plan will start May 1 and said that the proposed plan would cost $406,000 for this year. The current salary surplus is at $240,000, and by May 1 he said he would have $328,000.
Wheeler said that the department has the budget to cover the cost, with a current budget of $1.1 million. "Due to the vacancies, I would have more than enough to implement the salary adjustment this year without any additional costs to the sheriff's department," he said.
Wheeler also would like to start a feeder program with the Lincoln University Police Academy and the Law Enforcement Training Institute to fill the vacant positions.
