Hill County Sheriff's Office talking pay increases

Deputies and dispatchers for the Hill County Sheriff’s Office are having their union representative discuss with the county and sheriff a possible pay increase.

HCSO employees have salaries as decided through a matrix. The starting salary for a dispatcher is $24,955 and the starting salary for deputies is around $36,470.

The union representative, Darcy Dahl, met with Sheriff Don Brostrom and County Commissioner Mark Peterson last week to talk about possibly giving the employees a raise in pay.

“What’s in his budget is in his budget,” Peterson said of the money allocated from the county to the sheriff’s office.

Dahl asked for pay increases for night and afternoon shifts for officers and dispatchers, as well as extra pay for extra duties.

“It’s not uncommon to have shift differentials,” Dahl said.

After deliberating privately, Brostrom announced that they had decided that awarding cash bonuses for extra duties, like working the evidence room, was a possibility that they could explore. The duties would be split into tiers, and limited to three per deputy. The limitation is to avoid favoritism and the tiers established due to varying levels of the tasks’ involvement.

“Some of these duties are more task-oriented — require more time from the deputy,” Brostrom said.

Brostrom said he would have to move money spent somewhere else for the sheriff’s office to pay for the extra pay.

“You’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Peterson said, adding that there cannot be more funds added to the sheriff’s office budget and the odds of the citizens of Hill County voting for a tax increase to allow more funds to be allocated to the office is unlikely.

Peterson asked for information about how much other sheriff’s offices are paying and how much is taken out for their insurance.

Dahl said she would take the information back to the union for further discussion.