It came four months later than many wanted, and at a county commissioners’ work session that ran way overtime on Thursday, Sept 5; however, in the end, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners arrived at an agreement that will significantly up the pay of patrol officers and detention officers in the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.
The board unanimously agreed to a plan that would, starting with the county’s first pay period in October, raise the salaries of deputies and detention officers to the 60th percentile of what other counties pay across the state for those jobs.
Some of the Sheriff’s Office’s higher-ranking staff will also see increases as well in order to avoid salary “compression” – that is, to maintain an acceptable gap between pay levels for different ranks.
For three years, Guilford County Manager Mike Halford has been making an effort to get all Guilford County employees up to the 50th percentile of what other county employees in similar jobs across the state make – and, at great expense, Halford has made that happen.
However, one department, the Sheriff’s Office, was still below that percentile after the 2024-2025 budget passed in June. The commissioners did include $2 million in that budget to up the pay in the Sheriff’s Office, but it was $1.4 million short of raising the deputies and detention officers to the 50 percent level.
At that time, Commissioner Pat Tillman said publicly that that was the biggest problem with the budget and he argued that the money for the officers should have been included; however, the majority of commissioners had decided to put the matter off until later discussions could be held.
The board addressed the issue at a work session earlier this summer but there was a lot of disagreement as to how much of a raise detention officers and patrol officers should get.
That discussion continued at the long September 5 work session.
Some commissioners argued that, since the officers do very dangerous work and the vacancy rates remain high, the employees in question should get paid at a level higher than the 50th percentile, but other commissioners argued that the pay should be in line with what other Guilford County employees make since all of the employees in the county system are highly valued assets.
In the end, Commissioner Carlvena Foster made a motion to move the patrol officers and jail guards to the 75th percentile of pay in the state; however, several commissioners expressed concerns that the county had just completed a very tight budget and acknowledged that the county will be looking at an even more challenging budget next year in June.
The commissioners have spent and borrowed an astonishing amount of money over the last three years and even the Democratic-majority board led by Chairman Skip Alston is starting to realize that Guilford County government doesn’t own a printing press like the federal government does.
In the end, the 60th percentile pay grade was the compromise the board agreed to.
Good article Scott but with one exception, Skip has his printing press in all the taxpayers . He won’t slow it down , only print more. Get ready citizens.
Good for them to get the raise bad for us because taxes will go up. What pork will the county cut out of next years budget.
I wonder what kind of raise Skip gave Sheriff Danny. His 200K plus salary doesn’t need to be compressed lol. With over 120 vacancies, because nobody wants to come work for Sheriff Danny there should be plenty of money in the budget (Salary, benefits, cars not used) to be able to give all the line officers and Detention officers a nice 1 time bonus. I wish someone would investigate why so many have resigned (or forced out by Sheriff Danny) while he has been Sheriff. The County Manager needs to be held responsible for this and the lack of services provided to the County and to the stress put on the Detention officers baby-sitting over 75 (accused murders) awaiting trial, some over 5 years. We can do better than this. We need new fresh Leadership.
Which is why we need BJ Barnes to run again, but I doubt he will.
Cars not used? Sheriff Danny gives everyone he can a vehicle. Want to save Guilford County some money? Look into how many unsworn persons are driving county vehicles that dont need to be.
What an embarrassment to your subordinates.
Only reason for a tight budget was the Commissioners GAVE money to private individuals, groups (who NOBODY has ever heard of), bogus non-profits and friends of the commissioner(s). The problem with many employees exiting from the county is due to pay. Why would an officer stay in the 60 percentile when one can do the same job elsewhere in the 75th percentile or higher? Commissioners have themselves to blame for their lack of responsibility to the citizens of Guilford County.. Most commissioners reside in the city and do not realize the significance of those who reside in the county and require Sheriff assistance. Clowns?
“…but other commissioners argued that the pay should be in line with what other Guilford County employees make since all of the employees in the county system are highly valued assets.”
WHAT????? What brain dead, Lenin loving, whiny liberal Commissioners (led by His Highness Skippy) considers a clerk’s 9-5, M-F office job the same as a law enforcement officer? Scott, you need to publish the names of the spineless “representatives of the people” that took that stance because they obviously don’t care about the citizens of Guilford County.
It’s bad enough that ALL the Commissioners voted to pass a budget that DID NOT give them a raise but then some ran to the mics to (IMO) do a CYA. $1.7 million in that budget for buy votes giveaways.
Folks, this is what you get when you don’t get out and vote. I guess my Civics & Government class had it wrong when they said elected representatives work for the people. It appears to be the other way around.
About time!!! They are worth it and should have got it long time ago. The statement that they should be paid the same amount as other county workers is one of the stupidest statements every. Do the others risk their lives to protect us? I do not think so.
There are Greensboro city council members that share the same opinion. They do not think police should be paid more than a Parks and Rec employee.
“The commissioners have spent and borrowed an astonishing amount of money over the last three years“
And the people voted for these commissioners, a sad and uninformed voting base that have been taken advantage of.
THIS is the one are of Guilford County finance that I, as a taxpayer DEMAND that Commissioners spend more of my hard earned dollars on!! But Noooooooo, suddenly commissioners decide to bemoan how tight the County budget is these days! How could that be, if they are only considering giving officers 75% of statewide average? To add salt to the wounds of our LEO’s, some commissioners actually think ANY other county employee deserves to be compensated EXACTLY as law enforcement?
I have to admit it- Guilford County Board of Commissioners really
#××∆°°!
What a waste of money!
Money isn’t the problem, it’s the command staff and the toxic culture. The sooner you get rid of the trash and the weeds, the sooner the rest can grow. They’re still running good people out the door and their peers are either to scared to look elsewhere, or too close to retirement to benefit from leaving. The few that are happy are either new, clueless, or part of the problem.
You just raised the pay of the crooks & liars just as equally as the honest hard working folks there. It’s really pathetic if you think about it. Tillman and Halford are apparently clueless. They should both (along with the rest of the board) spend some time with the rank & file there and get enlightened. Preferably before the SBI or FBI steps in.
JS
Tillman did express serious concerns about the climate and culture of the department and he has asked to see studies related to that. I did not put this discussion in the article but plan to use those comments in an upcoming article.
All well and good Scott, but how did he vote on the Budget? I’ll tell you…he voted aye. As a conservative I’m ashamed of him and the others that did the same.
Good!
Dig away, Scott! This is classic Rhino Times work.
This discussion sounds very similar to the discussions at corporate board meetings when they justify the amounts (which most Americans consider obscene) they pay to CEOs and other C-Suite executives. Undeterred by the fact that many executives receive hundreds of times the average amount paid to non-executive employees, the board compares their own executive pay to the executive payment (or overpayment) of other large corporations. So, in a never-ending race to the top, executive compensation unsurprisingly increases much faster than other aspects of the business.
In the case of governments, taxes (which are the main revenues of governments) must also increase to increase employee compensation, regardless of whether the economic circumstances of the taxpayers increase. But when the economic circumstances of the taxpayers get worse, the government employees may have to forego raises, but the base compensation does not decline. Eventually, as in California, New York and Illinois, the most affluent taxpayers vote with their feet, and leave the liabilities to someone else, just like unhappy shareholders sell their stock, to invest in better-managed companies.
This is WAY PAST DUE. And is not enough. The sheer incompetence of the leadership in the Sheriff’s dept is mind blowing. Beyond pay, the overwhelming amount of vacancies and people leaving tells a story that seems to be overlooked and begs to be investigated. The dangerous situations the patrol and detention officers are forced to work because of lack of enough people for adequate coverage is astounding – the physical and mental toll the long 12 hr shifts, performing double the work to cover gaps in coverage, and Mandatory Overtime takes goes unnoticed – and the sentiment that the rank and file have is that the leadership just doesn’t care. A pizza lunch is NOT a solution. The minimal pay increase marginally helps, but the systemic problems, toxic culture, and general lack of respect (or even awareness) for the safety, health and well being of the officers and throughout the entire Sheriff’s department starts at the head. THE FISH ROTS FROM THE HEAD DOWN. . .
They can continue throwing money at it, but no one wants to work for that agency. Promoting unexperienced and untrained individuals leads to chaos. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed in that jail, and Rogers will have to live with the consequences of his poor leadership and incompetence. Seems to me everybody wants more money and participation trophies. They want Millions why not be more transparent on where their money is going before asking for more.
They just raised the debt by selling another $2 million for Guilford County’s payroll budget. Can you help me understand this? If they’re short 120 employees, where is the $6-8 million, since it’s not generating interest?
And with so many vacancies she makes you wonder why at any Rogers actually creates new positions within his agency. They’re so short staffed why do they need so many chiefs for example you’ve got a Warrant Squad with what a sergeant and a Corporal maybe one employee. I say transparency open the budget see where all the money is being moved to and we’re being spent. I think I figured just three out of town business trips for Danny, his driver and deputy chief by the time you had in their salary and travel expenses while staying at Luxury Resorts for those 3 weeks was $30,000 in Resorts.
Why not follow the money Trail.
The money that Danny spends on cowboy hats could easily fill a position or two. I’d forgotten that we are now such a cosmopolitan county that the sheriff has to have his own chauffeur. There is another two position.
Geez, and we haven’t even looked behind closed doors. I’ll bet we could staff a whole department with all the graft and corruption behind THOSE doors!!
Sheriff Rogers takes employees from the detention side and moves them over to work with him at Otto Zenke but he lets them keep the detention title so that way it looks like there is a lot more detention officers in the jail than there really are and some of them never work in the jail while others from his office might “hang out” in the jail for an hour or so to make it look like they do something in the jail.
Also if you mess up pretty badly in the jail and you get on the Sheriff’s good side (go to his church and act like you like him) then he will move you from the jail to Otto Zenke to work with him.
Also what is with the budget at the Sheriff’s office? They claim they do not have money to fix broken things in the jail but yet almost all of personal and training over in the Sheriff’s office drive new county cars. Danny sure does looks out for his people!