01/12/2025
One of the pushes I have been making since I was Sheriff-Elect, is to take the work week for our office from 30 hours to 40 hours. Currently my staff works 9am-4pm with an hour unpaid for lunch, a work day is compromised of 6 paid hours. At this time we have two open positions in our office, and another person out on an injury. This leaves myself as Sheriff, my Chief Deputy , and one Deputy for our full time staff of Deputies, transporting inmates, serving civil process and warrants, serving Protection from Abuse Orders, Evictions, processing paperwork, providing court security and much more. Last year while trying to hire individuals, we utilized our part time staff to great extent, as we have 5 amazing part time Deputies, 4 of them retired from Law Enforcement jobs who we can utilize on an as needed basis if they’re available, and 1 part time Deputy with full time employment elsewhere who always helps out when they can, and even will request time off to help us out. With an extremely low number of applicants for one opening the prospects of filling two spots is low, especially with a starting salary of $26,520.00 a year. Making the shift to 40 hours would take that salary to $35,360, which would help attract and retain a new hire and reduce turnover rate. Outfitting a Deputy is no cheap matter, and with no uniform allowance and a starting salary of $26,520 yearly, we purchase all uniform expenses. As of the 2nd of January my staff has been working 8 hour days as instructed by me, to ensure that we can handle the workload effectively being 3 Deputies down. We are still utilizing our part timers, when they’re available to assist with day to day functions like Courtroom Security, serving civil papers, assisting relieving our Security Officers for their breaks, and more. Officially getting the hours changed would enable us to open the Office earlier and later for processing License to Carry applications, as well as having our staff on duty closer to when school is session to have more law enforcement active during school hours. Deputies have a larger window to serve civil process on people as most first shift people are not home during the 9AM-4PM window. We would also move to make the unpaid hour lunch a half hour, reducing the downtime of staff not being paid as we all handle duties during our “lunch hour” currently.
My goal to do this is to try to cut one position that I am hiring, a savings in $26,520. And bump almost all my current full time staff to 40 hours. This results in more hours a day to serve the public, extended hours to process License to Carry Permits, and our office putting in more work everyday for you the people. The savings to the county from cutting one position, with the reduction in cost of the healthcare benefit, would be used towards funding the move. The family plan for insurance cost more than one Deputy starts off at. This would minimize the impact of the increased hours on the overall budget. I feel like this move would be giving the taxpayers what they deserve as well, as our hours should reflect actual full time hours worked, for the wonderful benefits we receive. Lastly this change would not affect my pay or hours in the slightest, as an elected official my pay is set before the election until the next election cycle, I receive nothing more than my salary, and whatever yearly cost of living increase was determined before the election, regardless of how many extra hours I work, and I would work those 40 hours with my staff proudly.
Several other Montour County agencies successfully operate under 40 hour work weeks such as the Prison, Maintenance and the Coroner’s Office, although other offices remain at 30.
We look forward to having an open discussion on this move, hopefully with public input and hearing feedback or solutions to help continue our mission to serve the citizens of Montour County. We’ve taken strides to improve this last year to be more proactive in our community, and if given the time to do more, the Montour County Sheriff's Office will make sure those extra hours in the day are spent serving the interests of those we swear to protect.
Along with the 19 week long academy, Deputies must pass a physical fitness test to enter and graduate the Sheriff/Deputy Sheriff’s Academy which I am attaching with this post.
