Henderson County Fiscal Court passed a resolution of an incentive plan that will give $3,000 to sheriff’s deputies with three or more years of experience.
Henderson County Sheriff Chip Stauffer said many departments in the area are losing officers, including the Henderson Police Department, as local governments throughout the region recruit officers from different agencies. He said the sheriff’s office is not in that situation with 18 0f the 20 deputy positions filled.
Two more will start in January, then go to the Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond in February, before returning to HCSO after that training is complete.
Stauffer said the incentive is not meant to attract new applicants, so much as it is a thank you to current deputies.
“It lets out people know we appreciate them and we’re trying,” he said. The deputies “we have, we like and we want to keep them.”
He said that 13 of the 18 deputies currently on staff will receive the incentive. Others, as they attain the 3-year mark, will receive the incentive next year, Stauffer said.
This incentive pay is a sort of band-aid in the middle of the budget year, Stauffer said, adding he will work with Fiscal Court in spring to create a more comprehensive plan for the next fiscal year.
Of nearby police departments and sheriff’s offices, Stauffer said HCSO ranks “near the bottom” in salary.
The incentive money will be drawn from unused money within the sheriff’s office’s budget, said Judge-Executive Brad Schneider.
In other news:
- The Fiscal Court will seek foreclosures on three county properties for codes violations. The properties include 2106 E. Cherry St. in Spottsville; 8775 1078-South in Henderson; and adjoining properties 3592 and 3606 E. Marshall St. in Henderson. Schneider said Codes Administrator Randy Tasa has been working with those owners for years to clean up those properties. Those properties continue to be a public nuisance that also affect neighbors’ property rights and safety, Schneider said.
- The Fiscal Court proclaimed Nov. 14 as Khloe Cottingham Day in Henderson County. The Cairo Elementary School fifth-grader was named the judge’s scholar.