Nearly unanimous, Commissioners approve 11% raise in COLA for county employees

ANSON — Successfully bringing Anson County’s budget audits up to date, commissioners turned to tackling COLA raises at their Budget Workshop held on Monday, July 3rd.

Despite a budgeted 5% COLA increase for all county employees, Finance Director Holly Berry, and Anson County Sheriff Scott Howell addressed commissioners with a proposed increase in the pay of entry-level sheriff’s deputies to 5.6%, that when coupled with the 5% proposed increase for all county employees, awards an increase total of 11.6% to the sheriff’s office.

With Commissioner Robert Mims in agreement, Berry stated, “This will move all entry level deputies to the same pay.”

Mims added, “This would just be that if you went to Montgomery County, you would be making as an entry level deputy the same thing.”

Concerned with how salary competition from neighboring counties is affecting the hiring ability of other county departments, Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood inquired, “Do we have similar situations in other departments?”

Before his question could be fully uttered, Commissioner Priscilla Little-Reid declared, “Yes.”

Agreeing, Berry answered “I am pretty sure we probably have in every department to be honest. This is a request from the Sheriff’s Department that the County Manager did not recommend.”

Defending his request for a 11.6% COLA increase for the Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Scott Howell compared the pay scale of the Union County Sheriff’’s Office with that of his own.

He announced that Union County’s starting pay currently “goes up to $58,000.00 and they are going to get a dollar and a half raise starting January 1, 2025. That is going to bring starting pay for a deputy in Union County up to $61,240.00.”

Howell pointed out that his office does not have a whole lot of people beating down the door begging to become deputies now, leaving him with the difficult choice of hiring “someone else’s problem child because they got in trouble somewhere and they are already certified.”

Citing a change in North Carolina law taking place on July 1, that anyone considering a career as a deputy must first successfully complete Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) before applying, the sheriff explained that his office would no longer be responsible for paying for new recruits to complete BLET.

He suggested, “I think that just for this year to catch up…it is something like $60,000.00 to make a difference in the lives of eighteen people. We are not talking about the whole office, it is to boost up the entry level people so that we can keep what we got and then be able to recruit hopefully from somewhere else.”

Howell pointed out to commissioners that Montgomery County has traditionally been the lowest paying sheriff’s office in the area and without their recent pay increase would not be able to entice deputies away from Anson County.

Chairman Jamie Caudle reasoned that by no longer paying for BLET, the county would be “offsetting that cost by paying for it from the county if they get a starting pay raise.”

Recalling the firestorm of debate ignited in August 2023, when the sheriff’s office was awarded a 12.5% COLA increase, while other county department’s were offered a 2.5% increase, Gatewood wondered, “How do we respond to other departments that have issues hiring qualified individuals and they are not getting an extra boost in their starting pay rates?”

Answering that he wished all departments could get the same raise, Howell responded “I know that every agency in the county is deserving of raises. We at the Sheriff’s Office obviously deal with life and death situations every day. It is a twenty-four hour seven-day-a-week job. I can only speak for my office and I will tell you what I proposed is what my employees deserve and need.”

Speaking on behalf of what her department deserves and needs at the following commissioner’s meeting on July 4, Department of Social Services head Lula Jackson requested a motion to allow lap salaries to give a one-time bonus to DSS employees equivalent to two pay periods per employees that are on payroll as of June 30, 2023 and a 2.5% gross salary bonus for employees hired after July 1, 2023.

Jackson said at the meeting, “The request (is) regarding the current budget, not a request regarding a future budget. There would be no fiscal impact because it would use current base salary line items. There would be the same reimbursement that we currently have for DSS payroll.”

Jackson’s address roused a present Commissioner Harold Smith into backing her motion. As a DSS employee, Commissioner Little Reid asked and received recusal from discussions or a vote on the matter.

Palpable silence accompanied Smith’s motion, filled with commissioners awkwardly refusing to meet Jackson’s gaze. With no discussion, Jackson’s proposal was denied.

Still answering Commissioner Gatewood’s question, Howell added with a grin, “We do have openings in the Sheriff’s Office.”

Reminding his fellow commissioners of the county’s $400 million in uncollected taxes, Caudle encouraged “If we work on tax collection that is where we can afford to give an 11.6% raise to every employee. When we lose another two or more paramedics we no longer have an EMS service provided in this county. The state is going to mandate that we provide that service,” he warned.

If Anson County no longer has a functioning EMS, it will be forced to contract its emergency service needs out at a significantly steeper fee than the proposed raise and resources currently requested.

Commissioner Mims pointed out that like EMS, without a raise for the sheriff’s office, Anson County will face needing to contract out it’s deputy service.

Commissioners’ Woodburn and Gatewood stated a desire to see all county employee wages raised to the same proposed level as the Anson County Sheriff’s Office requested 11.6%.

Chairman Caudle reminded his fellow commissioners that the six current vacancies within EMS have been open all year and have led to a $700,000.00 payout in overtime hours.

“If we invest that $700,000.00 in salaries, theoretically we won’t have near the overtime to pay,” Caudle suggested.

“Last time I checked the county website we had more than thirty vacancies so it is more than just the sheriff and EMS involved,” Commissioner Gatewood countered.

In response, Commissioner Jarvis Woodburn put forth a motion to increase all county employee COLA to 11%, as well as add $191,000 back into EMS. A hail of calls to second the motion were made by Commissioners’ Gatewood and Little-Reid.

The motion passed with Commissioners’ Mims, Woodburn, Bricken, Caudle, Little-Reid, and Gatewood all voting in favor. District seven was not represented.