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Members of the Shawano County Public Safety Committee believe it’s wiser to offer differential pay for night and weekend work than it is to hire additional staff.
Wiser, and easier to accomplish.
“It’s a no-brainer,” Supervisor Tess Serrano said at a meeting Aug. 7. “You can’t fill (the new positions), so why ask for them? You aren’t going to find two additional positions for the jail and for dispatch before you find somebody who’s willing to take 50 cents more an hour to work whatever shift.”
In July, the committee recommended the Executive Committee consider a differential of 50 cents an hour for staff who are scheduled to work nights or weekends. This would cost $30,825 for jail staff and $12,592 for dispatchers.
Instead, the Executive Committee said the solution is to add one full-time employee to each unit to allow for more flexibility in scheduling.
Chief Deputy Ty Raddant told the Public Safety Committee that option would cost about $167,000 per year compared to the differential pay of about $43,000.
“I don’t believe … adding more workers is the answer to our problem,” he said. “I think it’s unrealistic to think that (we can add) more people when we can’t even fill the openings that we have.”
The last time the jail was at full staff was 2014.
“To add another one isn’t going to do anything,” Raddant said. “We can’t fill what we have open now. We have the same thing with dispatch. We’re trying to fill one right now. We have another one that’s going to be open at the end of the month. We actually have a possibility of having three retirements next summer.”
The jail and dispatch center each have minimum staffing requirements 24 hours a day every day of the year.
“Right now, law enforcement is not a popular job,” Raddant said. “What we need to do is try to make the job more attractive somehow so we can get young people to come in.”
He said that years ago, 70-80 people would apply for an opening. Now, the county might get 20 applicants, and half of those don’t meet the minimum qualifications.
Many surrounding counties and manufacturing jobs are competitors for the sheriff’s department jobs. Most have differential pay, and Oconto County has $2 an hour more than the base salary for night and weekend work.
“We can’t compete with manufacturing, like the paper mill in town,” Raddant said. “They still have the union. They close up for Christmas, some other holidays. We can’t do that. … We’re stuck here. Our weekend people have to work, and our night people have to work.”
The chief deputy, filling in for Sheriff George Lenzner who was out of town at a conference, said he didn’t buy the argument that differential pay for the sheriff’s department would affect all other county departments.
“This is the only office that has regularly scheduled hours for overnight and weekends,” he said. “We have on-call pay for maintenance. We have on-call pay for IT. We have on-call pay for DHS. We have on-call pay for detectives. They all get paid just to be available to answer the phone. We spend roughly $36,000-$37,000 a year, the county does, just to make sure somebody answers the phone. And then, if they do come in to do some work, they all get paid time and a half.”
Raddant reminded the committee that all courthouse employees can work summer hours, which includes a half day on Friday. Highway department staff works four 10-hour days in the summer. This means longer weekends for all of them.
“People working nights at the sheriff’s office, we can’t do that,” he said. “Somebody’s got to be here to work.”
Raddant said summer hours are a great benefit, and differential pay is a little bone for corrections and dispatch staff. Communications Supervisor Kasey Cross agreed.
“What we’re trying to do is give a little something to the people that are here now,” she said.
Supervisor Jeremy Gretzinger asked about sign-on or year-end bonuses.
Julie Hasser, human resources director, opposes sign-on bonuses and said year-end bonuses would have to be done for all departments.
“I think there was some conversation that the 50 cents wasn’t maybe enough, but I think it is more of a statement than the actual dollar amount, just the understanding and knowing that they’re being somehow compensated,” she said.
Troy Beyer, jail administrator, said that from when the jail was built in 1994 through 2014, there were 77 employee resignations and retirements. In the decade since then, there have been 115 resignations and retirements.
Lt. Chris Madle, also the emergency management director, said the quality of applicants in the past decade has also declined, with many not possessing the minimum qualifications.
“For applicants for Shawano County, we’re pretty drained of anybody that lives in the area – has applied already or has been here,” Gretzinger said. “So, we need to pull them people that are living in Green Bay, Pulaski, wherever. So, I’m going to work in Oconto because they pay $2, and they’re closer to my house.”
Madle noted that Walmart online shoppers get paid $26 per hour.
Committee members reached a consensus that they will continue to request the pay differential be added to the 2025 budget.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
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