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Commissioners give in to sheriff far too easily
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 22, 2000 In a unanimous vote this week, Pasco County commissioners sent a signal to the 1,600 county employees under the control of County Administrator John Gallagher: We value sheriff's deputies more than you. Tuesday, the commission agreed to send $3.8-million to the Pasco Sheriff's Office to raise salaries at the 850-employee agency. There has been nearly universal agreement that pay scales needed to be increased, though Sheriff Lee Cannon offered commissioners only anecdotal information about the turnover rate among deputies. It is the second consecutive year Cannon has successfully pitched higher salaries for his employees to stem what he called high turnover without providing documention. Last year, Cannon received more than $600,000 to disburse among jail guards. Do we blame Cannon? Not at all. He is trying to improve the salary structure without benefit of a revenue source other than property taxes in the general fund controlled by commissioners. A recent study determined the department's pay scale is not competitive compared with neighboring agencies. Cannon has no alternative except to ask the commission for an increased budget. But we would expect substantial data to back his claims, particularly given the department's recent history of misstating statistics while requesting more money. Tuesday, Commissioner Pat Mulieri asked Cannon how many deputy positions approved by the commission last year had been filled. "It doesn't work that way," the sheriff answered. Regrettably, neither Mulieri nor anyone else asked a follow-up question. As stewards of the public purse, it is not unreasonable to ask the sheriff how many full-time employees he has; how many positions are vacant; how long it takes to fill an opening; and how long newly hired deputies stay on the job. Allowing the sheriff to be evasive reflects on the commission's own inattentiveness. Because deputies had an authoritative figure making a presentation on their behalf, commissioners acquiesced on Cannon's request for $3.8-million in raises. Yet, their own 1,600 employees, without benefit of an independently elected constitutional officer to speak to their needs, will divide $3.3-million in salary increases even though the pay studies were conducted simultaneously. The discrepancy comes because the county did not increase salary ranges for its more senior employees, offering $1,500 bonus payments instead. Cannon expanded salary ranges about 14 percent across his 17-step scale for deputies, ensuring employees with greater longevity continue to make substantially more than recent hires. If Cannon had adopted the same pay scale as the county, the cost this year would have been cut in half to $1.9-million. Doing so, Cannon told commissioners, would be "horrendous," "a disaster," and would damage employee morale. There was no such rhetoric espoused for county employees even though one of every 16 positions is vacant, a common trend in public-sector employment because of the robust economy. County administrators offered a practical reason for compressing the salaries. "We've never had enough money to raise the whole (pay scale)," Gallagher told commissioners. Certainly sheriff's deputies deserve special consideration because of the cost of training. Raising the pay scales could make staying in Pasco County more attractive to some officers, reducing future expenses. Cost to attend the police academy, now being picked up by the sheriff in exchange for a three-year work commitment, is nearly $10,000. But the commission didn't consider a similar dilemma with its firefighters who are lured away by higher salaries elsewhere after undergoing extensive training here. In the city of New Port Richey and at the Pasco school district -- a pair of governments dealing with employee unions -- raises negotiated during bargaining sessions are duplicated for the non-unionized employees. Though the county has no union with which to deal, it should consider a similar philosophy in future pay-scale deliberations to ensure equal treatment. Conducting duel salary studies for the county and Sheriff's Office but implementing them differently is unfair.
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