02-02-10

Salary Schedule

After completing a salary study the Bates County Commissioners and Sheriff have come together to restructure the salary schedule for Bates County Sheriff’s Deputies. The restructure was deemed necessary to bring the salaries within a reasonable margin with other area law enforcement agencies. The Sheriff’s Office has been plagued in the past with problems hiring and retaining qualified Law Enforcement Officers. The Sheriff’s Office has been what is often looked at as a “training agency” for other agencies. “We spend thousands of dollars to hire and train deputies just to have them leave for other higher paid agencies” said Sheriff Anderson.

In 1988 the voters approved a ½ cent sales tax for law enforcement services. This sales tax generates approximately $600,000 to fund the law enforcement offices of the Sheriff, Prosecuting Attorney, Coroner, and Juvenile Operations. The Sheriff’s Office actually only realizes about $270,000 from the sales tax. In 2001 the voters approved a bond that built a new Law Enforcement Center. With the addition of the new facility, Bates County was able to secure a contract with the United States Marshal Service to house Federal prisoners. This contract pays the county a per diem rate for each prisoner. This contract has consistently generated approximately $1.4 Million in revenue for Sheriff’s Office.

The contract that increased the population of the jail has benefited the citizens of the County in many different aspects. One aspect has been that the contract has created approximately 30 jobs for the Citizens of Bates County. Another aspect is that the Sheriff’s Office has expanded and improved their services to the Citizens of Bates County. The Sheriff’s Office was able to increase number of hours that Deputies spend in their neighborhoods, improve equipment they use and better their training. This has greatly improved the response time to calls for help from Citizens. Time is very precious when a Citizen is in need of help.

The County has strived to work with the Sheriff to continue to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Sheriff’s Office. This has lead to needed cuts within the Sheriff’s Office that has saved thousands of dollars. This also included the improvement of the commissary to which inmates are allowed to order food. These changes have increased revenues to the commissary of $75,000 from 2008.

In addition, the Commissioners and Sheriff Office has applied for and received numerous grants, which include an $89,000.00 CSI grant which also created another job for Bates County, $13,000.00 equipment grant, $2,000.00 Volunteer In Police Services grant and $2,000.00 in mini grants for Traffic Safety Campaigns. Bates County also partnered with three other Counties for a $700,000.00 technology grant. This grant will allow replacement of outdated software at the Sheriff’s Office and the installation of laptop computers in each patrol car. The laptops come with GPS units that will allow dispatch to know where each patrol car is so that when a call for service comes in they can quickly identify which patrol unit is closer thus improving response time. .

Out of 114 counties in the state, Bates County ranks sixth largest in square miles, with 849 miles. Vernon County follows closely with 837 square miles. In addition, the Sheriff’s Office assist other police agencies within Bates County upon request and provides primary Law Enforcement duties for the Police Departments of Rich Hill and Adrian when they do not have officers on duty.

By comparison, salaries for Bates County deputies have lagged far behind surrounding counties and cities. With our proposed restructure Bates County will still be below all surrounding counties and cities. The increase in salary will help the County to retain and recruit better qualified officers.

Sheriff Anderson stated, “I am glad to have the opportunity to come together with the County Commission and identify solutions to problems while providing improved services to the Citizens of Bates County. I am equally excited that we were able to achieve this without asking for increased taxes to the Citizens of Bates County while remaining fiscally responsible at the same time”.