The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors approved an Intergovernmental Service Agreement today with the State of Arizona to provide state appropriated funds directly to YCSO deputies and detention officers.
Sheriff David Rhodes, as part of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association (ASA), helped secured over $53M from the state, dedicated specifically to the 15 County Sheriff’s Offices to help retain current staff and to help recruit new hires to the agencies.
Rhodes and the ASA worked with the Arizona Legislature during the first half of this year, fighting for increased pay for deputies and detention officers (collectively referred to as deputies at YCSO) to bring them to at least the current market range. The original legislation for a pay increase was put on hold to allow individual counties to do a salary assessment, but Rhodes knew a stop-gap measure was critical.
“Our deputies are woefully underpaid” said Sheriff David Rhodes. “Our Board of Supervisors did do a salary adjustment for all county staff this summer, for which we are grateful, but with other law enforcement agencies offering well over what a deputy is making in Yavapai County, I had to find other ways to try to keep our staff with the agency until a salary adjustment might occur.”
The $53M from the legislature is for one-time payments to lower rank deputies and is split proportionally between the 15 County Sheriff’s Offices. The $53M was in two pots – approximately $48.3M to retain staff and $5M to recruit.
Yavapai County’s share of the retention funds equaled $3.22M. The funding will be used to provide a $10,000 retention bonus to deputies who were employed by YCSO as of May 1, 2022, which amounts to approximately 322 staff members. The funds will be paid over two years in quarterly installments to those that remain with the agency.
In addition to the retention bonus, the funds will also be used to recruit new staff. YCSO is offering $5000 to any lower rank deputy or detention officer who is hired after May 1, 2022. The payment will be disbursed over one year in quarterly installments if the employee remains with the agency. Yavapai County is eligible for $275k and the bonus will be offered to new hires until the funds run out.
“I am so happy to be able to provide this little bit of incentive to our dedicated deputies who deserve much more,” said Rhodes. “I thank our state Legislature and the Governor for seeing the need as well and providing these funds to the Sheriffs.”
Original source can be found here.
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