Council debates prioritizing public-safety raises, proposes moving two deputies into public-safety fund

A council member (speaker 2) framed public safety as the county's top payroll priority and proposed a package of targeted raises and position transfers to pay for them. He recommended a 5% increase for the sheriff's deputies and jail staff, a 5% increase for the 911 communications center and a 1% raise for EMS, with the initial net county-general cost for his public-safety proposal calculated at about $185,000. "County government's initial...main responsibility is public safety," he said, adding recruitment and retention concerns in the jail and sheriff's department.

To limit the county-general impact, he proposed moving two deputy positions (identified as deputy O3 and O5 in the budget sheet) into the LIT/public-safety fund and moving the surveyor's office manager position to the perpetuation fund. Other council members cautioned that relying on uncertain LIT supplemental revenues to sustain recurring raises carries risk; one member asked for conservative estimates if the supplemental were not realized.