During a special called meeting Monday, the Vance County Commissioners approved a revised emergency pay policy that has been in effect since April to staff the county detention center.
Since the policy was put in place – which allows for employees of the Vance County Sheriff’s Office to fill in at the jail because of staffing shortages – the county has paid spent more than $483,000 to keep adequate staff at the jail.
County Manager C. Renee Perry recommended some changes to the policy to commissioners, which includes removing exempt staff from substituting at the jail, using individual employees’ overtime pay rate and allowing no more than 60 hours overtime per pay period.
The revised policy states that exempt employees and non-exempt staff at a pay grade of 72 or above be excluded from the emergency pay policy.
Sheriff Curtis Brame responded to commissioners’ concerns and said he opposed some of what the manager included in the revised policy. He requested that a cap not be placed on the number of hour an individual can work and he balked at having on-duty patrol deputies be responsible for transporting detainees.
Brame said that he is down 12 staff at the sheriff’s office, and having patrol deputies transporting detainees would mean they’re not patrolling the county.
“We’re talking about safety, we’re definitely talking about safety,” Brame said. As of Monday, the county has 171 detainees, 63 of which are housed at the county jail. That means that the other 108 are in other detention facilities spread across the state of North Carolina from the coast to the Tennessee border.
In response to questions earlier Tuesday from WIZS, Perry said the sheriff “must reach out for approval in advance, just to ensure that the funds are available, not necessarily if the employees can work – just that funds are available,” she reiterated.
With regard to transport of detainees, Perry said that historically, deputies were able to transport. “My preference is to have his deputies do the actual transport without additional pay on their regular shift,” she said, but added that if that causes an undue hardship she would entertain conversations with the sheriff about that. “He just needs to let me know,” she said.
The policy that Perry proposes states that when the lapses salary well goes dry, the emergency pay policy will end.
Brame said county money needs to be made available to keep the staffing at the jail. He called the fund balance to a rainy day fund, used when emergencies arise. “It’s raining like hell in Vance County,” Brame said, “and I’m getting wet.”
After close to a half hour discussion, Commissioner Tommy Hester made a motion to approve the policy Perry recommended. The motion was seconded and was approved, with a lone “no “vote cast by Commissioner Valencia Perry.
