BENTONVILLE — A request from Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck to raise the pay of his command staff “raised some eyebrows” among the county’s justices of the peace, who will debate his proposal Tuesday.
The Quorum Court’s Personnel Committee is set to meet at 6 p.m. to consider Cradduck’s request along with a proposed reorganization of the county’s Road Department, which would cut 10 positions and increase pay for others. A request to hire a full-time deputy coroner also is on the agenda as are reorganizations and re-gradings of position in several other departments.
Meeting Information
Personnel Committee
The Personnel Committee of the Benton County Quorum Court will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Quorum Courtroom of the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.
Cradduck is asking for raises for the top seven positions in his office — Maj. Rob Holly, Maj. Shawn Holloway, Capt. Chris Sparks, Capt. Nathan Atchison, Capt. Brandon Rogers, Capt. Jeremy Felton and Capt. Jeremy Guyll.
Cradduck is asking the justices of the peace to move each of the seven to the maximum pay allowed at their grade under the county’s grading and pay scale. For Holly and Holloway, that would increase their annual salaries from $63,440 to $76,128. Both of those positions were approved for a pay increase in April from $57,096 to their current level, according to county records. Holloway was a new hire by Cradduck this year. Holly had worked for the Sheriff’s Office from 1998 until leaving the department in 2011.
The captains also would be moved to the maximum pay allowed under the county’s pay scale, with Sparks’ salary increasing from $52,499 to $70,678 and the other four captains seeing their pay increase from $53,019 to $70,678. Sparks was a jail captain under former Sheriff Keith Ferguson and was paid $52,499 in 2012, according to county records. Guyll was a jail lieutenant in 2012 and paid $42,224. Atchison and Felton were sergeants before being promoted after Cradduck took office in 2013. Atchison was paid $46,404 in 2012 and Felton was paid $44,616. Rogers had worked for the Sheriff’s Office but resigned in 2011. He was being paid $44,684 a year as a sergeant when he resigned, according to county records.
Cradduck said his request is just the beginning of an effort to bring the pay of the Sheriff’s Office closer to that of similar law enforcement agencies in the area.
“There is such a discrepancy between what my command staff makes and what they make at other departments,” Cradduck said “You’ve got sergeants at some agencies making more than majors and captains here. They’re all below what they should be making and even this raise is not going to put them close to the top.”
County records show a pay increase for the top administrators in the Sheriff’s Office from 2011 to 2012. Don Townsend, who was chief deputy, saw his pay increase from $66,769 in 2011 to $69,058 in 2012. Townsend’s date of original hire is shown in county records as April 5, 1974. Gene Drake, who served as a major before retiring, saw his pay increase from $57,033 in 2011 to $58,760 in 2012. Mike Jones, a captain in charge of the field division, saw his pay increase from $46,344 in 2011 to $50,660 in 2012. Mike Sydoriak, a captain in charge of the criminal investigation division, saw his pay increase from $55,038 in 2011 to $55,660 in 2012.
Barb Ludwig, county human resources manager, said many of the top administrators under Ferguson had reached the maximum pay levels for their grades so their pay only increased by the size of any cost-of-living adjustment made by the county. She said the positions were re-graded as part of the 2013 budget process, increasing the maximum allowable salary, but that same restriction would apply to the majors and captains under Cradduck if their pay is increased to the maximum.
“That was part of the reason I wanted to re-grade the positions in 2012,” Ludwig said. “For the captains, their max was the minimum for some of the cities.”
Several justices of the peace said they have concerns about Cradduck’s request, including the size of the raises, the timing of the request and the potential impact on the county’s 2014 budget when other raises for employees are considered.
Shirley Sandlin, justice of the peace for District 8 and chairman of the Personnel Committee, said her focus will be on fitting the request in the context of the county’s pay plan first and then the budget.
“We don’t decide about the money, that’s up to the Finance Committee,” Sandlin said. “What we do is, if we see this is out of sync we will question that. In essence, we review it and either give it a ‘do pass’ or a ‘do-not pass’ recommendation or we do nothing.”
Sandlin said she told Cradduck it’s unlikely the raises will be approved immediately, whether they are ultimately approved, rejected or modified.
“I told him ‘Don’t expect to anticipate anything before the first of next year,”’ she said. “I also told him don’t necessarily expect to get the whole thing all at once.”
Sandlin said she is sympathetic to the argument the county pay is below the compensation levels for similar jobs in city departments but said that is true of many county jobs. She said her preference is the county re-examine its salary structure as a whole rather than make piecemeal changes.
“Maybe it’s time to look at it again,” she said. “I know the Sheriff’s Office has gotten some increases in the past, but I think it’s time because, at least in some positions, we’re below some others.”
Sandlin said she isn’t swayed by the argument county pay is lower than that offered by cites.
“We’re not going to be able to match the cities; we just don’t have that kind of money,” she said. “That’s something we’ve had to live with.”
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Finance Committee, said he prefers to put off a decision on raises until the county is into its budget process this fall. Allen said he hasn’t looked at Cradduck’s request in detail but was familiar with the size of the raises requested.
“I know those have raised a lot of eyebrows,” Allen said. “That’s a big jump.”
Allen also said he understands the discrepancy in pay between the Sheriff’s Office and other agencies but said that also applies to other county positions. He said that makes him prefer to have the consideration of raises as part of the budget discussions.
“I think by putting this in the budget process we can look at everybody who needs it, not just one elected official,” he said. “We have to weigh it against our revenue.”
Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for district 15, said he’s also concerned about the pace of the increase in pay for the employees, not necessarily the end result, and with fitting the pay increases into the overall county budget.
“”I’m concerned about the trajectory, about how rapidly we would take those people to that level,” Moehring said. “The size of the raises, that’s also a concern across the county. We’ve got to reconcile that with our budget constraints.”
Moehring said he appreciates Cradduck raising the issue of the disparity in pay for county employees and he agrees with the basic premise that county employees are underpaid.
“Having said that, that doesn’t mean we can afford it,” he said of the raises.