MILTON — The Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to include a 10 percent pay increase for the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office in the Fiscal Year 2018 budget.
Sheriff Bob Johnson on Monday made his case for a deputy pay increase with these crime and salary statistics:
•Florida’s crime rank rose from 59th in 2015 to 53rd in the first half of 2016.
•The crime rate rose from 3.8 in 2015 to 4.8 in 2016.
•The percent of people arrested from outside Santa Rosa County rose from 20 percent in 2015 to 29.5 percent in 2016.
•The national law enforcement staffing average is 2.7 per 1,000 citizens. Santa Rosa County is at 1.2 per 1,000 citizens.
•The Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office has the lowest starting salary at $31,553 — below the Milton Police Department at $31,948, the Gulf Breeze Police Department at $34,386, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at $34,902, the Pensacola Police Department at $35,006, and the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office at $39,000.
Johnson said he doesn’t advocate bumping the deputy-to-citizen ratio up to match the national average, which would be 432 officers, and said he isn’t trying to meet Okaloosa County’s pay rate.
However, “A 10 percent increase would raise the starting pay to $34,708. The cost (to the county) would be 1,681,141.20,” Johnson said.
His plans require deputies to sign a contract assuring three years of service after training. There would be different pay for deputies working evening and night shifts, and doubled daily pay for field training officers from $25 to $50 a day.
The pay disparity was not unknown to the board.
“We’ve talked about it several years now with Sheriff Wendell Hall, the disparity between starting pay with not only sheriff’s departments but police … It’s no surprise officers get trained here and go to other agencies or we can’t hire them in the first place,” Commissioner Lane Lynchard said.
“The realistic thing he’s looking at is a lot of violent crimes are going to be stimulated and increase if we don’t take deliberate steps to mitigate the influence of citizens of neighboring counties. I’ve seen it firsthand,” said Commissioner Sam Parker, a former Escambia County Sheriff’s deputy.
Commission Chairman Rob Williamson said the pay increase could be a budget-neutral endeavor.
The county has been spending roughly $1.2 million from general funds on Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office capital expenditures for the past five to six years, Williamson said.
“With the local option sales tax, we can shift that toward improving starting salaries where the sheriff sees fit,” he said.
“That’s what we sold to the public when we asked for the local option sales tax … A lot of people got behind that tax because they felt through family, their personal reasons, they strongly supported a vigilant law enforcement service.”
Santa Rosa County residents should also encourage the State Attorney’s Office to leverage harsh punishments against criminals to push back against the crime rate, Parker said.
“We want to send the message to violent criminals that are coming here from neighboring counties that there will be severe penalties to face,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: County commission considers deputy pay raise