The Marion County Board has approved a four-year contract with the Fraternal Order of Police at the Marion County Sheriff’s Department with significant pay increases.
The contract includes a $2 an-hour raise for all covered employees the first year of the agreement starting with the county’s new fiscal year December 1st. There is a four percent raise in the second year and a five percent increase in the third and fourth years.
There will also be an extra first-year pay increase for telecommunicators to bring them to the same salary level as correctional officers. That will cost $20,000 in the first year of the contract. There will also be an extra bump in pay for command staff who are currently just making $1.06 more per hour than the regular employees. That adjustment will cost $38,000.
Overall the first year of the contract will cost $220,000 more.
Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps says this contract will end pay inequity with other departments.
“Employees at the sheriff’s office have been underpaid for years to be competitive are agencies doing similar type jobs. The board and I felt we needed to bring them up closer to be competitive. Illinois State Police and other facilities are literally poaching our officers. My dispatchers are being taken away for other dispatching jobs in the area. Correctional centers are leaving to go to DOC or some other facility because they pay more.”
Cripps says it creates a situation where Marion County trains new employees only to have them leave for better opportunities.
Cripps reports he made budget changes to keep the increase in the general fund down.
“I was able to move some stuff around in my budget to help accommodate the pay raise so some of the items that normally come out of the general fund will now come out of the safety fund. and that allows some movement to make these pay raises without affecting the budget too much.”
Cripps says they will also be doing more training in-house while officers are on duty instead of having to pay overtime for training elsewhere.
Personnel Committee Chair Adam Smith is pleased they were able to reach a cordial agreement.
“Our last two negotiations went very well. I think that is because we are all on board to fund the police instead of defunding the police. We’re glad to have all these guys who do a good job for the county.”
The only no vote came from Brock Waggoner who said he had asked for two weeks to review the proposed contract and only received a week which wasn’t enough time.
