BEDFORD – Last night’s budget hearing was open to the public for discussion and concerns. With none from the general public, County Councilman Rick Butterfield brought up his own concerns.
Tuesday night during the budget run-through, the county made cuts and changes to the budget as needed. One of those changes, at the suggestion of Rick Butterfield, was to raise the Lawrence County Sheriff’s merit officer pay an additional $2,500 on top of the initial request of Sheriff Greg Day for a $5,000 raise and 4% of the original pay grade.
The council took this into consideration and agreed to make the changes to support our local police. Giving Jessica Staggs, Lawrence County Auditor, time to run the numbers and ensure the cuts made from the general fund provided this freedom, the council received a report on the proposed changes the following day.
Those changes consisted of the following:
| Department | Account | Description | Line Amount | Amount of cut/additional | New Line Amount |
| Recorder | 11300 | Deputies | $75,349 | -$2,129 | $73,220 |
| Extension Office | 11900 | Clerical Part-Time | $27,369 | -$27,369 | $0 |
| Clerk | 11300 | Deputies | $197,871 | -$1,420 | $196,451 |
| Clerk | 11800 | Traffic Clerk | $44,990 | -$8 | $44,982 |
| Election | 11406 | Absent Voters Board | $46,280 | -$536 | $45,744 |
| Election | 11601 | Precinct Workers | $12,813 | -$29 | $12,784 |
| Election | 12101 | Central Count | $1,872 | +$8 | $1,880 |
| Registration of Voters | 11500 | Deputy | $36,528 | -$25 | $36,503 |
| Prosecuting Attorney | 11600 | Investigator | $106,938 | -$50,000 | $56,938 |
| Prosecuting Attorney | 11801 | Deputy Prosecutor | $360,000 | -$40,000 | $320,000 |
| Prosecuting Attorney | 30201 | Expert Witness | $5,000 | -$2,500 | $2,500 |
| Prosecuting Attorney | 37002 | Training Educational | $10,000 | -$5,000 | $5,000 |
| Commissioners | 11408 | MCS Resource Officer | $26,500 | -$26,500 | $0 |
| County Assessor | 11402 | Second Deputy | $165,715 | -$1,663 | $164,052 |
| County Assessor | 39601 | Contracted Services | $1,350 | -$850 | $500 |
| County Sheriff | 11200 | Chief Deputy | $74,637 | +$2,020 | $76,657 |
| County Sheriff | 11300 | Deputies | $1,553,352 | +$40,982 | $1,594,334 |
| Jail | 11308 | Overtime | $0 | +$7,500 | $7,500 |
| Public Defender | 11314 | FT Public Defender | $312,000 | +$8,000 | $320,000 |
| Misdemeanant | 44101 | Vehicle/Equip/Install | $34,000 | -$25,000 | $9,000 |
| Law Co Pretrial 9197 | 12300 | Group Insurance | $25,000 | -$20,299 | $4,701 |
| Law Co Veterans 9193 | 12200 | Retirement | $5,000 | +$400 | $5,400 |
| Law Co Veterans 9193 | 12300 | Group Insurance | $5,400 | -$2,185 | $3,215 |
| Law Co Veterans 9193 | 59200 | Unappropriated | $0 | +$250 | $250 |
| Victim Assistant Grant | 11116 | Director | $42,173 | -$1,938 | $40,235 |
| Victim Assistant Grant | 12102 | Social Security | $2,762 | -$128 | $2,634 |
| Victim Assistant Grant | 12200 | Retirement | $700 | -$40 | $660 |
These changes reflect the additional raise given to the Sheriff’s department deputies. This raise is intended to bring the pay closer in comparison to surrounding police forces.
This is Lawrence County’s efforts to pay our law enforcement what they deserve and lower the hire turnover rate. This was also a source of contention at the meetings for some council members.
Last night, Rick Butterfield lodged the request for an additional $2,500 for the Sheriff’s department to bring the raise to a full $10,000 plus the 4%.
This suggestion resulted in heated arguments about the topic with Councilman Rick Butterfield enforcing the idea that Lawrence County needs to pay the sheriff’s deputies more to get them closer to competing salaries.
Phil Inman and the rest of the council agreed that the officers deserved more, but Inman argued that the county couldn’t afford to pay as much as other counties or municipalities. According to Councilman Inman, Lawrence County’s assessed value is around 1 billion, 8 hundred while counties like Jackson County’s assessed value is 2 billion, and Monroe County’s is 8.9 billion.
Councilman Inman explained, “These are the very counties we say we’re competing with, and yes we’re going to continue to compete with them because we don’t have that type of income here in Lawrence County. Nor will we ever.”
Councilwoman Janie Chenault had her own concerns, stating “It worries me that we would not be able to support that [increase] going forward.” Once salaries are set in place, they are permanent. “The only way you could work with that if our funding dropped is to lay people off, and I certainly don’t think we ever want to be in the business of laying people off.”
Janie proceeded to say, “I feel like we’ve been very prudent and judicious…actually going above what the Sheriff put in his budget, and I feel like it’s a great first step.”
“We all want to see them get a raise, but we may not be able to do it all in one year.”
Julie Chase compared the relationship teachers have with students even beyond school to the role local government officials have with the community members.
“We as elected officials love all of the people that work for the county, and it’s a balancing act – you try and balance being able to afford it, trying to help and give them what we believe they’re deserving of, and also keep the public safe and taken care of too.”
Julie said that while it was important to keep our county police supported, being a part of the council requires a balancing act. “This is an issue I really support, but if we can’t afford it, we can’t afford it.”
When the time came to vote on the potential change, it was a three-to-three tie, with Rick Butterfield, Julie Chase, and Julie Hewetson voting for the additional raise, and Phil Inman, Janie Chenault, and Amy Redman voting against it. Council President Jeff Lytton broke the tie, preventing the raise from $7,500 to $10,000.
The raise will put the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department merit officer pay just above Mitchell in comparison, but lower than the Bedford Police Department. While not entirely fixing the problem, it’s a step in the right direction, and one larger than initially asked for.
The 2024 budget now stands at an all-time record for Lawrence County with $35,706,289.
The general fund makes up $18, 032,674 of this amount. All other funds, fee-driven, grants, etc., account for the remaining $17,673,615.
