Deputies still adjusting to OT policy

Some Garland County Sheriff’s Department deputies have bristled at the overtime policy the county put into effect last month, Sheriff Mike McCormick told justices of the peace earlier this week.

Their discontent notwithstanding, McCormick said granting time-and-ahalf pay for hours earned in excess of the regular workweek instead of paid time off has bolstered manpower on patrol shifts and at the detention center.

The Garland County Quorum Court appropriated $44,791 in May from the

General Fund to pay out 1,956 hours of compensatory time accrued by department personnel and $111,797 from the Detention Facility Fund for 5,432 hours accrued by jail staff.

“It’s had the desired effect that I was hoping it would have at the sheriff’s department,” McCormick told the county Finance Committee. “We’re having more people working the streets, and we’re having more detention deputies that actually have feet on the ground out at the detention center.

“That was one of the issues we were having. People were building up so much comp-time and taking so much comp-time, it was leaving shifts light. And it has in a great way alleviated a lot of that.”

McCormick said some deputies are still adjusting to working more days under the new policy. The department uses an 86-hour, two-week period to calculate overtime for public safety personnel, having previously used a 171-hour, 28-day range. The new policy also exempts lieutenants from overtime pay, requiring the quorum court to approve a $2,000 annual pay raise in May for nine lieutenant positions at the department and jail.

“A lot of people are not happy with it,” McCormick, responding to a committee member who asked how the policy was being received, said. “Those are the ones who were utilizing comp time to take every third or fourth day off. Now they’re having to report to work, and that’s where the problem is. They’d rather have the time off.”

The county paid out $2,511 for sheriff’s department overtime in June, and $2,767 for overtime at the jail. For the month, $13,590 in overtime was paid for all county employees, including $3,717 the county will be partially reimbursed for through its participation in the Selective Traffic Enforcement Grant administered by the Arkansas State Police’s Highway Safety Office. The grant helps pay overtime deputies accrue while enforcing traffic laws.

The road department had $1,854 of overtime last month, and the 911 dispatch center had $1,242.

The county said June’s overtime costs represent one-tenth of 1 percent of a $13 million payroll comprising about 460 employees.