By Taylor Boyd
Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith requested the Patrick County Board of Supervisors consider raising the pay of the lowest-earning employees in his office to the same level of the other employees to stem the flow of staff losses.
He reminded the board at its Nov. 8 meeting that he previously emailed members alerting them that his office has lost 19 deputies since March 2019.
“Since that email was sent to you all, I’ve lost 20 deputies, and I had the 21st interview for another agency last Thursday. I anticipate that he is going to be leaving,” Smith said.
That loss would mean an estimated 38 percent of his staff have left – the majority of which resigned, Smith said, and added “four of them were retirements, and one of them left due to disciplinary reasons.”
Currently, there are five job openings in his office, Smith said, and he anticipates six positions will soon be available at the Patrick County Jail. His office received only one application in the last few weeks to fill those vacancies.
Additionally, once accepted for a position, Smith said new hires must attend four-months of training at the police academy.
“We’re going to have to pay salaries and benefits for those in training, and find deputies to work overtime to replace them,” he said, adding his office has spent more than $357,000 “since March 2019 retraining people that have quit, new hires for people that have quit, and overtime to fill in to work in the jail while they are going through training.”
Smith noted that the neighboring Henry County Board of Supervisors faced a similar issue recently, and eventually tapped American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to approve a pay raise of $4,160 per year for most law enforcement officers and public safety staff. The raise will take effect on January 1, 2022.
Henry County also is in the process of completing a new jail, with an expected opening date of April, Smith said.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office has “hired 30 deputies, and they’ve got to hire possibly 60 more to staff the jail,” he said, and added that “$4,000, with paid insurance and driving 10 miles further would be enticing.”
Smith added that the pay increase in Henry County has the potential to wipe out his entire jail staff.
In addition to the extra money available there, Smith said the types of calls his officers respond to are noticeably more violent, and with more armed individuals. The deputies assigned to work in the jail also are confronted by inmates at a higher rate than in previous years.
In making his request to the board, Smith emphasized the proposal is not an across-the-board raise.
Patrick County Administrator Geri Hazelwood said that once the county cannot use ARPA funds, the raises would be expensive.
“We don’t want to bring people up to where they need to be and then have them turn around and leave once they get trained. Turnover’s pretty expensive,” she said.
Denise Stirewalt, of the Peters Creek District, said that while most are opposed to a tax increase, they must realize that services such as law enforcement cost money.
“We’re going to have to do something, and people are going to have to be supportive of us,” Stirewalt said. “The comments made that we need to live within our means – come to a budget meeting, see how we are living within our means. See where we have cut and cut.”
Stirewalt said the sheriff’s department and the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) paid staff are operating on bare minimum funding.
“We have volunteers that are supposed to run (calls) first, and Station 8 (paid crews) runs second, but Station 8 is running first. Volunteers can’t get off work. They don’t want to run some of them,” Stirewalt said.
Noting there are about 120 inmates housed in the Patrick County Jail, Jane Fulk, of the Dan River District, said the county needs to keep the jail open and operational.
A vote on Smith’s request is scheduled for the Dec. 20 meeting.
