Motion for detention officers' pay raise fails
Lee County Commissioner Samantha Martin's attempt to find funding to raise the pay grade of detention officers fell short Monday at a workshop on the proposed 2025-26 budget.
The vote came after Sheriff Brian Estes addressed the board on the needs of the Sheriff's Office to help with the county's growing population.
A primary area of concern, he said, is the salaries for detention officers. They are paid less than road deputies but face similar, if not more harmful conditions, Estes said.
He asked for two more detention officers, but the positions were not funded.
Estes also asked commissioners to consider moving detention officer positions two grades up on the county's pay scale. That would put their salaries one step below those of deputies.
It would cost $256,535 to make that move, Estes said.
'That's a move that will take the department in the right direction,' he said. 'With two pay grades, it would help to move people to different divisions, putting them one pay grade under deputies.'
Martin asked if there was a way to find funds by looking at the budgets for departments. One area she suggested was the money set aside for travel.
That pays the expenses for employees and commissioners when they attend educational and certification events. Some are local while others are out of state.
'We might consider tightening up the budget to find the money,' Martin said.
She then made a motion to have County Manager Lisa Minter go through the budget again to find available money.
Board Chairman Kirk Smith pointed out that the budget is to be adopted at the commissioners' Monday meeting. It must be completed by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Martin's motion failed by a 5-2 vote.
A discussion on increasing compensation pay for the Board of Education members was pulled from the agenda. The commissioners had asked school board member Eric Davidson to bring information regarding compensation pay in the region, but he did not attend Monday's meeting.
On June 2, the commissioners voted to approve a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment for school board members, according to an email from county spokeswoman Hailey Hall. They rejected a motion to raise their salaries to the same as the county commissioners.
Minter took time to address a post that appeared on Facebook last week questioning tax revenues for the county.
'It has been brought to my attention that School Board member Alan Rummel has made a statement in a Facebook post that the county has been underestimating tax revenues by $10 million annually,' she said reading from a memo issued the commissioners.
Rummel, who was at the meeting, stood up and vehemently denied making the allegation. He did post on Facebook last week, but did not make a statement about the revenues.
He cautioned residents about incorrect information that may be spread and encouraged them to call school board members to confirm the data.
The confusion, Minter said, resulted from comparing revenue from governmental activities to those for the general funds.
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