For years, Guilford County Manager Mike Halford and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners have been working to raise the pay for county employees to the point where those employees would be making the 50th percentile of workers in other counties across the state in similar positions. Halford has constantly contended that Guilford County employees are underpaid and he wanted to see them being paid at least at the midpoint of the state’s pay scale relative to other county employees in like situations and positions.
In the 2024-2025 fiscal county budget adopted in June, the Board of Commissioners completed that effort across departments with one exception: Some employees in the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, namely patrol officers and detention officers, still fell under the midpoint.
On Thursday, Sept. 5, the board 8 to 1 to, starting with the first pay period in October, raise the pay of deputies and detention officers to not just the 50th percentile – but to the 60th percentile of the pay in the state when compared with other officers in other counties.
However, the board only did so after a lively debate between some commissioners who wanted to see the pay raised to the 50th percentile and those who wanted it raised to the 75th percentile.
Some commissioners made the argument that these officers are placing themselves in a dangerous work environment in order to protect the public and that both patrol officers and jail guards are taking risks every day that other county employees are not.
At budget time four months ago, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that the issue of officer pay had “slipped through the cracks.”
However, the truth is probably closer to this: The commissioners were just all over the place on what should be done for the patrol officers and detention officers. Some commissioners wanted them brought up to the 50th percentile level; others wanted to see 75 percent, and some fell in the middle – at the 55th or 60th percentile.
Alston said on Friday, Sept. 6, a day after the meeting, that he would have liked to have seen the pay raised to the 75th percentile because of the risk the officers take and the difficult nature of their jobs.
Commissioner Carlvena Foster also wanted to see the level raised to the 75th percentile, citing the nature of the work and the need to address vacancies.
Foster made a motion at the afternoon work session to raise the pay to the 75th percentile, but, ultimately, the commissioners compromised on the 60th percentile pay level.
Commissioner Mary Beth Murphy, a school teacher in Guilford County Schools, said that the county commissioners had long ago adopted a policy of raising all county employees to the 50th percentile and she added that the county has many very hard-working people – and she therefore believed it would be unfair to the other county employees to make the pay in the Sheriff’s Department higher than other departments.
“I shared my concerns previously and they haven’t really changed,” Murphy told her fellow commissioners at the September 5 work session where the board banged the matter out. “Our board adopted a policy that we would pay our employees across our organization at the 50 percentile of the market. All of our employees, I’m confident, work really hard – and many more employees than the ones in the Sheriff’s Department do things that put their lives on the line every day.”
She continued: “Our folks who run our ambulance services and the folks who, you know, take other risks – all of those jobs are important. And, for me, for our board to have adopted a policy that says we’re going to do the 50th percentile and then for us to not even try to make progress on the vacancies by going to the 50th percentile – and jumping way ahead – well, that feels like a contradiction to our core values that we also adopted. I am struggling to reconcile that there are 3,000 employees in our organization.”
Murphy added that she would love to pay all of the county employees at the 75th percentile of the market and she said, ‘They absolutely deserve it.”
She said the county’s resources are limited and there was no recurring revenue source to pay for the increase.
“If we can’t prioritize it for all employees, it feels like going against the values that we have adopted and the policy we have adopted,” she said.
Commissioner Carly Cooke said, “I appreciate the sacrifice and the service of our law enforcement – and some of you are here. I want you to hear me when I say that what you do is so important, but so many of our county employees do very important vital work and provide service for our community.”
She also said, “I don’t know how this is sustainable for us to start a budgeting process $16 million in the hole and not be able to do anything else that we have decided as a board our priorities.”
The commissioners also discussed other tools they can try: Alamance County, for instance, is facing the same challenge and they offered a sign-on bonus and, within weeks, had about 35 new applicants.
Commissioner Frankie Jones said that the higher pay doesn’t mean the officers are more “valuable” employees, but it does help compensate them for the fact that they are constantly put in a set of challenging circumstances that deserves higher pay.
Commissioner Alan Perdue, who used to be the director of Guilford County Emergency Services, pointed out that a lot of Emergency Services workers and other county employees also face hazardous conditions and he wanted to see what could be done for them in the future.
Commissioner Pat Tillman said during the meeting, as well as after it while speaking with the Rhino Times, that he wants to know more about exactly why people are leaving the Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s not all about pay,” he said.
Tillman said there may be other problems in the department and he would like to see more data as to why the department constantly carries so many vacancies.
He added that Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers “didn’t do himself any favors” when he first came into office in late 2018 and immediately fired over 25 officers.
At the time, Rogers was concerned that many members of the force were too loyal to former Sheriff BJ Barnes and Rogers was concerned they would try to undermine him.
Foster was the only no vote on the motion.
Commissions Tillman, doesn’t the county HR department do exit interviews. If not maybe now would be a great time to start. Maybe a few phone calls to people who have left may be an eye opener. Good luck.
If skip and his band of thieving democrats had not given away 1.2 million of TAXPAYER dollars to their pet non profits, several of which no one has ever heard of before, the money to give raises to the sheriffs department would be a non issue Mr. Tillman it’s time someone does a deep dive into cowboy Danny’s
spending habits and follow the money trail
Also why does he need a driver? Does he not have a license and if he doesn’t. Why not
Follow up please. Taxpayers want to know.
Why it took so long? Because the commissioners had to pad their personal pet projects, just like city council does. Wasted tax dollars at citizens expense.
Dems not going to fund the essentials like LEO pay and working conditions until the political frill areas are covered.
Commissioners are more interested in GIVING our tax dollars to person friends and organizations the majority of county residents never heard of. They are no better than the city of Greensboro council clowns.
Why would you, the commissioner put public safety last? Your excuses are pathetic!
Bahloney. All jobs have a different description, pay should not be the same for any group, or for individuals, for that matter. So everyone is at the same trough. Including those who put their health and lives in danger. Why would anyone want to patrol the streets of Greensboro or the County, while putting their lives in danger, dealing with the sometimes dangerous part of society?
No wonder civility, and even society, is falling apart. It is everyone for themselves. What’s in it for me?
People don’t realize that there are social workers who make “home visits” to report on homeless clients, foster children, abused children, the mentally challenged, and the elderly who are often in grave danger of being physically harmed or killed. There are school teachers and school bus drivers who are attacked and battered by parents and students every year while working.
I don’t think a “bonus pay” because a job is dangerous is warranted. Generally, they’re raising the pay so it’s equal to or higher than surrounding areas to attract more hires or retain officers. They shouldn’t have used the “excuse” of the job being “dangerous or hazardous” for raising the pay above the 50% that they were raising the pay for other County employees. They should have explained the difficulties they were having with filling the vacancies means there needed to be a larger percentage increase to attract applicants.
As others have said there’s a bigger issue here than pay, which has to do with the Sheriff and that can only be solved during this election. The people who vote have the power to change the major issue harming the police department now by voting for a better leader for our Sheriff’s Department. Think about that in November.
Good points, but I disagree about equal pay for everyone.
One consideration for the importance of a job is the length of time it takes to train an employee replacement. A receptionist takes a day or less to train. A cleaning crew takes some instructions to train. A data entry employee takes very little time to train, depending on the data. A file/data retriever can be trained within a week, especially now that the population uses and is familiar with computers. All of HR can be replaced as quickly as Human Resources can be spoken. The old name for HR was Personnel and was more apt than HR. HRs have been filled with minorities for the purpose of keeping an eye on Ole Whitey and to make sure that Blacks receive plum jobs. For the jobs that take a long time and, perhaps are arduous, to train, these are the more valuable positions and are worthy of higher pay. Police officers, nurses, computer hardware and software savvy personnel, and essential personnel trained in decision-making positions. All other positions are fluff, and everyone is either non-essential or could be replaced easily. The essential employees are the ones who should be paid more and valued more by the city. But being the government it is, the city tries to make everyone equal in pay, a shameful exercise believing that all positions are equal. They are not.
Term Limits, I ‘m shocked, positively shocked that you don’t believe in equitable pay for our city and county workers ! :-0 ( shocked face)
“At budget time four months ago, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that the issue of officer pay had “slipped through the cracks.” …but somehow $1.7 million in vote buying giveaways stayed on high on the agenda.
Skip, you are so filled with male bovine meadow muffins. Give the voters a little more credit then that.
“Alston said on Friday, Sept. 6, a day after the meeting, that he would have liked to have seen the pay raised to the 75th percentile because of the risk the officers take and the difficult nature of their jobs.” See the above paragraph.
Apparently, according to the ENTIRE Board of Commissioners based on their unanimous budget vote, those people rate higher, are more important the the security and safety of ALL the citizens of Guilford County. And they apparently think the citizens of Guilford County are made of money. They can give away millions of tax dollars but need to take time to …” know more about exactly why people are leaving the Sheriff’s Office.”
“Guilford County Commissioner Pat Tillman has said repeatedly over the last several months – in which the new Guilford County budget was formed – that the pay of the county’s deputies and detention officers needed to be increased; and he made that point forcefully last month on Thursday, June 20, when the commissioners adopted a budget for fiscal year 2024-2025.”
“The glaring piece that I view as missing [in the budget] is sheriffs’ pay,” Tillman said right after the budget was adopted. “We need to take that up as soon as we can.”
Rhino Times July 23, 2024 talking about the lack of a pay raise for deputy’s.
“Commissioner Pat Tillman said during the meeting, as well as after it while speaking with the Rhino Times, that he wants to know more about exactly why people are leaving the Sheriff’s Office.”
“It’s not all about pay,” he said.
“Tillman said there may be other problems in the department and he would like to see more data as to why the department constantly carries so many vacancies.”
September 10th 2024 when discussing a pay raise for deputy’s.
Which is it Commissioner? I guess they need another year or two to sort everything out
Sheriff Rogers has done the County residents, the County employees of the Sheriff’s Department and the County Inmates (or residents that he calls them) a disservice. He created 25 vacancies right from the beginning. Thought people were loyal to BJ Barnes. Of course they were because Barnes treated them right, but that doesn’t mean you fire them and cause problems for their families. That also caused problems for his current employees because they were shorthanded and have never recovered (currently 120 vacancies). That caused problems for the Inmates because they didn’t get the service they are deserved and it puts stress on everyone, especially the Detention Officers. Would you want to run down and put in an application and work in those conditions if he treats people that way. He needs to save face and not run for re-election, almost like Biden he should step down now, before more comes out about him as its getting ready to start. Between now and 2026 the truth is coming out, wait for it!!
The Dancing Cowboy Sheriff. All hat and no cattle.
What difference does it make that we pay at the 50th percentile of workers in other counties across the state in similar positions. You should pay attention to your competition which would be neighboring counties as it is very doubtful your are losing people to counties that are 100 miles east, west, north or south of the county you reside in. The county council should be asking for data of what a radius of 75 miles for employees are for similar jobs with the same job description pay and then do your 50 percentile analysis. The way we are doing it is just making our border counties rates their rates as well as now you are in a chase your tail kind of position.
As far as the sheriff position are concerned maybe the best thing to do is do a risk analysis of jobs within the sheriff’s department, fire department and first responders departments and pay for life insurance policies and disability policies so that if something happens to them on the job their spouse and children are taken care of for life. Most of the time it’s best to get pay ideas from the employees not management as you can clearly see management positions here in this county are well above average pay.
The County Commissioners can throw all the money at the detention and Patrol and it’s still not going to make it any safer. When you’re promoting based on Dei and not training an experience the risk of a major event occurring inside the jail facilities is much greater. If you don’t have good commanders, qualified and well-trained you have a problem. No matter how much money or raises you want to throw at it. 1 meanwhile with all the overtime they’re making they’re set to be making somewhere between $ 70,000 over $100,000 depending on the employee. This year if they set themselves up with plenty of overtime. Meanwhile isn’t the commanders slipping a little raise themselves on this deal? I said go back and go over where all the money is being spent you’ll probably have plenty of extra without raising taxes. Come on commissioner this is what you get paid to do.
I hope Guilford County voters remember Mary Beth Murphy’s defund-the-police position in the next election.
They are not Jail Guards; they are Dentention Officers! Give them the respect they are do!
KC what’s the difference between a “jail guard” and a “detention officer “. Please enlighten us. And in your last sentence the proper word should be “due” not “do”