Employee salaries focus of meeting

Study finds many workers paid below market value

BENTONVILLE — The salaries of employees in the Benton County’s Sheriff’s Office and Road Department were the focus of discussions at Tuesday’s budget meeting.

The Quorum Court’s Finance Committee met to work on the 2019 budget.

A study found 72 percent of Road Department employees are paid below market value and 56 percent of employees with the Sheriff’s Office are paid below market value.

Justice of the Peace Tom Allen said employees from the two departments make up more than half of the county’s employees.

Jay Frasier, administrator of public services who oversees the Road Department, said employee retention is crucial to the department. Frasier said his concrete foreman is underpaid and can go somewhere else and probably make $7 per hour more, but he remains with the county because of the benefits.

Sheriff Shawn Holloway said the biggest turnover of employees in his office is in the jail. Holloway said they have the money in the budget to cover the increased pay for employees determined to be paid below market value.

Holloway said because of the turnover of employees, especially in the jail, there

are weeks positions are open which means no one is getting paid. Holloway wants to use that money to cover the pay increases. He said the Sheriff’s Office returned almost $800,000 last year to the county.

“We are not asking for an increase from last year’s budget,” Holloway said. “We can do it within the existing budget.”

Holloway said the study determined patrol deputies are being paid within market value so the increase in pay doesn’t concern those deputies.

Holloway said the study found members of his upper command staff are paid below the market value and many leave the Sheriff’s Office for higher pay with a local corporation.

Justices want Brenda Guenther, comptroller, to review salaries for all employees to examine their market value.

County Judge Barry Moehring told justices of the peace he believes it’s time to invest in salary increases for employees.

Justice of the Peace Joel Edwards asked if all the departments do exit interviews so the justices could learn why employees are leaving the county.

There’s no requirement for the county to do exit interviews, but Holloway said they began doing exit interviews at the Sheriff’s Office to learn the reasons why people were leaving.

Holloway also requested four positions to be assigned to work details. Holloway said when the jail gets overcrowded the first thing they do is start releasing people serving misdemeanor sentences. The Sheriff ’s Office would have to purchase four vans and equipment for the crews.

Holloway said the new work details will be for misdemeanor prisoners and at least 10 inmates would be assigned to each of the four deputies. The inmates will be tasked with picking up litter or other jobs, Holloway said. The possibility exists that one group could be assigned to help the Road Department, he said.

The misdemeanor inmates would work and then at the end of the day go home, Holloway said.

The committee did not make any recommendations and the topics will to be discussed again at meetings concerning the budget.