Sheriff says low pay causing turnover

Holloway seeks salary study, wants agency to stay ‘somewhat competitive’

BENTONVILLE — Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway said Tuesday disparities in pay are causing his office to lose deputies to other police departments.

Holloway said he knows deputies left the Sheriff’s Office for jobs in the Bentonville and Rogers departments in the last month for raises of $6 and $8 an hour. He said he wants a salary study done.

“I don’t blame the guys,” Holloway said. “If they can leave and get 6 or 8 dollars more, they should. I know we’ll never be able to pay what they pay, but we’ve got to try to stay somewhat competitive.”

Holloway said the problems multiply when the officer is hired, becomes certified and trained, then goes to another department, leaving the Sheriff’s Office to begin the process of hiring and training another officer.

“We don’t want to become a training ground for other agencies,” he said.

Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said the county did a salary study in 2016. She said a partial study covering some departments could be done in advance of the budget process this fall.

Assessor Roderick Grieve said the problem isn’t as acute for his department as the sheriff indicated, but he hears employees “grumbling” about pay. He said he has more problems with technical positions.

The county recently had an opening for a GIS mapping job, and Grieve said one online job site he sent the information to said they wouldn’t post it because the pay level was too low.

The question of a salary study was raised at a meeting of the Job Evaluation and Salary Administration Committee, made up of elected officials. The panel reviewed a number of changes in job titles and grades and recommended them for consideration by the Quorum Court’s Personnel Committee, which is set to meet Monday.

The committee also reviewed a model policy from the Association of Arkansas Counties for including medical marijuana in the county’s drug-free and alcohol-free workplace policy. The recommended changes essentially deal with medical marijuana as the policy does prescription

drugs.

The policy restricts employees in “safety-sensitive positions,” which are defined as jobs “where impairment may present a clear and present risk to co-workers or other persons.”

Safety-sensitive positions include those where the employee may be required to carry a firearm; do life-threatening procedures; work with confidential information; drive a vehicle or operate machinery; and others. Those employees are required to notify supervisors if they are prescribed a medication that might cause drowsiness or otherwise impair the employee’s ability to safely do their job.