-
Deputies in 2020 -
Sheriff Mark Davis
In smaller rural counties, some are facing a dilemma in keeping well-trained and qualified law enforcement personnel from resigning and going to work for nearby agencies.
There are two reasons – pay and dependent health insurance.
Hardin County Sheriff Mark Davis said he’s lost more than 20% of his deputies to other county or city agencies in the last two years.
He said the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office lost two deputies to the Silsbee Police Department, one to Lumberton PD and two to Orange County SO. “Two years before that, I lost three or four to Jefferson County,” added Davis.
He said his county’s pay scale for deputies is about 15% to 18% below Jefferson County, and 5% to 10% or more below Silsbee and Lumberton PDs.
“Lumberton can hire in lateral entry, whereas you come to me with experience they have to start at Level 1,” said Davis. “But we’re working on trying to change that because it’s affecting my ability to hire.”
He noted his department’s pay scale is $10,000 to $12,000 below other agencies. The starting salary for a first-year deputy is $52,597.
Davis said the county is behind in market pay on the law enforcement side, especially upper management.
“There are sergeants in Lumberton (PD) that make more than my chief deputy,” he explained. “In Lumberton, they supervise three or four people. My chief deputy is over six or seven direct reports, and 70 indirect reports. How do you compete with that? I know it’s all about money.”
The chief deputy’s base salary is $65,898 per year.
Davis noted the county spends a lot of money hiring and training new deputies, then in a year or two loses them. He noted the county has a “very robust” training program.
“I go out on a limb and say I have the best training of any agency in the county,” Davis stated. “But because of that, the other agencies want our guys because they know they are well-trained.”
As far as other sheriff’s departments, Davis said he’s competing against Jefferson and Orange counties to keep his employees.
“Occasionally, I have someone go to Chambers County because their pay scale is tremendous,” he said. “Their tax base is bigger and better, and they also have a union.”
Jefferson, Orange and Chambers County Sheriff’s Offices have active employee unions, but not Hardin County.
“Historically, their pay scales have been higher than in Hardin County, because of the unions,” said Davis.
Davis said he receives a lot of applications from Tyler, Jasper, Angelina and Nacogdoches counties.
“We pay more than them, but not more than Silsbee or Lumberton PD, Jefferson, Orange and Chambers counties,” he said.
“Realistically, we’ll never be able to match Jefferson or Orange County SO’s pay scale just because of our tax base,” Davis said. “But we have to do better. There has to be a happy medium.”
The sheriff said he’s asking Hardin County commissioners to increase the pay scale for HCSO in the upcoming budget.
Hardin County, like other small rural counties, has health insurance with BlueCross BlueShield through the Texas Associations of Counties (TAC).
“But it varies tremendously,” said Davis. “It depends on the group plan, what the county’s rating is. Every county has a different rate and it’s based on their prior history, if they had a lot of absorbent claims,” he said. “Do they have an older workforce that is using more of the benefits? Do they have a county that they’re not able to contribute as much to the cost?”
Davis said employee-only health insurance is $20 per month in Hardin County.
He noted some counties may pay half of the insurance, while others may pay all the employee’s insurance but not coverage for dependents or spouses.
In Jasper County, Davis said their pay scale is lower than Hardin County, but they cover a larger portion of the dependent coverage insurance. A deputy from Jasper County worked for Hardin County for three months and then returned to Jasper County even though his salary was $10,000 more, according to Davis.
“He said even though he had a $1,000 raise in salary per month, his insurance bill went up to $1,200,” he commented. “He was at a net loss of $200 coming to Hardin County. His insurance was high to add his wife and kids.”
“The general public doesn’t have a clue how expensive insurance is in some government agencies,” stated Davis. “That is the one thing we have historically had to offer is benefits and retirement.”
He said the county needs to get a handle on benefits.
“Before you know it, we’ll wake up to 20-year-olds who are single and those 65 and older already drawing Medicare,” he added. “There will be no one in-between because they can’t afford the insurance.”