The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is seeing such high attrition rates among its uniformed personnel, mainly due to stagnant salaries, that some specialty unit deputies are being asked to return to street patrol duty.
Sheriff Ted Mink said he hopes to impress on the county commissioners, who make budget decisions, the need for more money for salaries.
“We’re have to realign our personnel to answer the 230,000 calls for service we get annually,” Mink said. Of those calls, at least 75,000 are 911 calls, he said.
In 2012, the department lost 36 deputies. So far this year, 28 have quit, according to Mark Techmeyer, public information officer.
Mink said the decision to ask deputies from special units such as crime prevention, traffic and directed operations to take on patrol duties has become a necessity. Normally, a crime prevention deputy would provide education outreach to residents.
Mink said the department is anticipating an 8.5 percent attrition rate, which he attributed to deputies leaving for better salaries at other agencies.
“We have not been able to adjust the salaries in five years,” Mink said.
“Out of 560 people, 8.5 percent may not sound like a lot, but when you are at minimum staffing levels on shifts and at the jail, it becomes disconcerting,” he said.
Mink said he does not want to alarm the public. In addition to putting the special units on the streets, the department also pays overtime to maintain staffing levels.
The department also invests as much as $118,000 a year per deputy to get them ready for duty as peace officers.
When they turn around and go to another agency, Mink said that investment is gone.
“You want to retain the investment with a few percentages increase in salary so you don’t lose it. Let’s be good stewards and fill positions with a competitive salary. It’s more cost-effective than paying time and a half,” he said.
Techmeyer said when the sheriff’s department goes to job and recruiting fairs, the lines in front of booths for other counties and cities is far longer than the one in front of Jefferson County’s.
“Why would anyone come to visit our booth? We are not competitive in salaries,” Techmeyer said.
Jeffco District Attorney Peter Weir said although he appreciates the commissioners’ task when confronting budget demands, his department of 175 total employees with 68 deputy attorneys is beset by a similar problem.
He praised his staff, but said he is seeing attorneys with five to 10 years’ experience who are leaving to pursue higher-paying positions.
He said when attorneys leave the department, they say, “I can’t afford to do the job given the other opportunities out there.”
“Since the recession, we have been down 6 percent in our property tax assessments,” County Commissioner Donald Rosier said. “All indicators are that it will remain flat for another two years. We take a very diligent look at where we stand in compensation and turnover.”
He said other departments experience a similar problem, and have not been backfilling positions, but are doing more with fewer people. Rosier mentioned the $36 million being spent on the jail for upgrades and modifications.
“The sheriff can say the department isn’t going to buy a new vehicle. He has the right to apply dollars to raises,” Rosier said.
But Mink said Jefferson County is almost at the bottom in terms of competitive pay compared to other agencies.
He said the budget for the sheriff’s department is $90 million, of which $68 million goes to salaries and benefits. That leaves $22 million to run the jail, maintain the fleets and provide technology.
“It doesn’t leave us a lot of wiggle room to do what we think we need to do,” he said.
According to county spokeswoman Kathryn Heider, the commissioners will begin their budget discussions, meeting with individual departments and the public, starting Oct. 16.
Mink will present the department budget request for 2014 to commissioners on Oct. 21.
Karen Groves: 303-954-2303 or kgroves@denverpost.com
This story was edited to clarify the different titles department officers may have.
Instead of unit division chiefs being placed on patrol, the correct term is specialty unit deputies.
The crime prevention deputies, not division chiefs, provide education and outreach.
The department invests as much as $118,000 per deputy per year.
The comment by Mark Techmeyer about the county’s recruiting booth refers to being competitive in salary, not recruiting.
