Sheriff hopes sales tax stems costly turnover

~ Deputies often leave when their three-year commitment is finished because of the pay, John Jordan said.

When Sheriff John Jordan explains his plans for using new tax revenue available if voters approve Proposition 1 on the Aug. 8 ballot, he lingers over the deputies he's lost to other law enforcement agencies.

Eight deputies to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Four deputies to the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Two to the Jackson Police Department. And two who in December took jobs at the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety.

That turnover is costly for the sheriff's department, Jordan said, because he usually hires new employees as jailers and pays for them to take the 480 hours of training required for new peace officers.

In exchange, Jordan asks for a three-year commitment to his department. Often, he said, the deputies leave when that commitment is finished.

"It creates a vicious cycle," Jordan said. "The most senior officer in the patrol division has six years' seniority. In the communications division, it is five years."

Since he took office in 1994, Jordan said, he's averaged 39 percent annual turnover in the communications division and 29 percent annual turnover in the patrol division.

Proposition 1, he said, could change those averages dramatically.

If approved, the half-cent countywide sales tax would generate about $5.9 million in the first year. The money, county commissioners have promised, would be used to eliminate property taxes dedicated to roads and bridges and accelerate the county program to pave gravel roads.

The sheriff's department, according to the proposal, would also benefit by receiving up to half the new revenue from the tax. After the property-tax cuts are included, the sales tax would leave the county about $3.1 million richer annually.

County commissioners promised in interviews that they would stand by their commitment to spend half the new tax revenue on the sheriff's department if Jordan could show the need.

The tax revenue, commissioner Jay Purcell said, "should cover all increases in salaries and benefits for the foreseeable future."

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said he, too, is committed to giving the sheriff's department up to half the new revenue.

The tax proposal ties the issue of roads with whether the sheriff's department can justify increased staffing and pay. And while the road proposal has received close scrutiny from the public and some negative reaction from leaders in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, little has been said about the portion intended for the sheriff.

In an interview, Jordan identified two specific areas for using the extra money. The first would be to increase the pay of most sheriff's department employees based on the differences between the current starting salaries in his department and the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

The second step, he said, would be to add 10 new employees. Jordan said he wants to hire five new road patrol deputies, two communications officers, two court security officers and a nuisance abatement/animal control officer.

A new Cape Girardeau police officer receives a salary of $30,139, recently increased as a result of city passage of a sales tax in late 2004. Sheriff's deputies receive a starting pay of $23,747.

Communications officers in the Cape Girardeau police receive a starting pay of $24,648, compared to $19,943 in the sheriff's department.

The difference between those starting salaries will be the basis for increased compensation for deputies, Jordan said.

The 37 commissioned peace officers in the sheriff's department, a number that includes investigators, road patrol deputies and jail employees who are qualified under state law, would receive immediate raises of $6,392.

Jordan employs 19 noncommissioned employees, not including clerical and maintenance workers, who would receive an extra $4,705.

Decisions for additional salary changes for supervisory officers, such as sergeants, lieutenants and captains would be based on recommendations from a study panel of county residents, Jordan said.

The total cost of his expansion and pay plan is $779,781 annually -- including the average cost of employee benefits of 30 percent of salary -- Jordan said. Equipment and other costs would drive up the total, he said, but could not give specific figures.

The expansion would end situations when the sheriff's department has only one deputy patrolling the entire unincorporated area of the county. The patrol division has 13 employees who must provide front-line law enforcement response 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Vacations, sick calls and providing compensatory leave for overtime cut into the work hours that those employees are available, Jordan said. There was only one deputy on patrol duty during approximately 25 percent of the eight-hour patrol shifts in 2005, he said.

As a result, deputies must set priorities for responding to calls, Jordan said.

One example he used involved simultaneous calls about illegal dumping, the discovery of a burglary and a domestic battery. Deputies must respond immediately to a crime in progress, he said, so if the deputy responds to either of the other calls and the domestic battery is reported, the victim of the other two crimes will be told they must wait.

"The citizens of Cape Girardeau County deserve better," Jordan said.

Duties of the sheriff's department include keeping security in courtrooms, guarding prisoners in the county jail, serving court papers and law enforcement in the county's unincorporated areas.

There is no state law mandating a particular level of staffing in first class counties such as Cape Girardeau. State law directs sheriffs in first class counties to appoint the number of "deputies, assistants and other employees as he deems necessary."

"Adding these employees is not intended to bloat government," Jordan said. "It is to bring services up to where it needs to be."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126