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The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office will be able to hire two night shift jailers in 2027, but the night shift differential the office requested won’t happen, at least not next year.
Before the sheriff’s office presented their proposed 2027 budgets Tuesday to the Kosciusko County Council, the wage committee recommendations were discussed again, with the committee having presented them at the council’s Aug. 13 meeting. On Tuesday, however, the council took votes on those recommendations.
Council President Tony Ciriello said the wage committee’s recommendation on the requested two night shift jailers was to allow them, one on each night shift.
Sheriff Jim Smith said it was a genuine need and it was a genuine need when he first asked for them and two others two years ago. He reduced his request then to just two instead of four, with the intention to come back the following year, although he put a priority into the COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) discussion last year as that was a big request.
This year, there’s a jailer on military leave and the night shift is still stretching the employees. “We’re still going out to the hospital. Every time that happens, we’re leaving a personnel short back there, or we’re paying overtime for somebody to come in and babysit and be with an inmate that’s at the hospital. We were able to significantly decrease the amount of damage back in the jail, and amount of fights. A lot of that is attributed to us having a more watchful eye with the satellite area of the jail. Rather than closing it down at 11 p.m. ... we now man that 24/7. But what comes with that is taxing your people. So, to continue to have those great results, this is a necessary,” Smith stated.
The two night shift jailers were approved unanimously.
The wage committee recommendation on the night shift differential is where not all the council members agreed. The committee recommended no night shift differential of $1 per hour for next year at this time, but they can revisit it next year.
In summarizing the recommendation, Ciriello said, “The wage committee felt that at this point in time it’s more important to address the wages for the merit deputies.”
Smith said his office feels very passionate about the night shift differential.
“We’re paying attention to what other agencies are doing. Never is it my intention to be above and beyond, to a reasonable point, but we have to stay relevant to these conversations because these officers are looking at what else is out there,” he said.
Other counties offer a night shift differential to its night shift officers, as does the Warsaw Police Department.
Smith said the KCSO not only wants officers to join the sheriff’s office, but they want them to come and stay and retire from there.
As far as putting officers under contract that would require them to stay with the sheriff’s office for three years after getting the training, Smith pointed out that’s only three years and “we want them to be here for 20, or at least be vested into their retirement.”
Councilman Joe Irwin said the thing with a contract is, if the sheriff’s office was already underpaying, why would they sign on for a contracted amount of time?
Councilwoman Kimberly Cates disagreed with the wage committee’s recommendation because, “especially if we’re going to give the merit officers a bonus, and we’re considering doing that, a stipend, whatever you want to call that, I think that it will do two things. One, I think it is discouraging for those that are in the jail, and two, I think that it would cause some animosity because we’re singling out certain type of people versus other people that work in the same type of work. And I think it’s a little more strenuous in the evenings. It’s not a comfortable situation to be in.”
Councilman Will Stockdale asked Cates if she had a proposal, and she said she did.
She proposed they do the night shift differential. Merit deputies are currently making $63,267 and Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele & Associates (WIS) recommended their 2026 wage to be $65,959.92. Cates said what she would like to see happen is, instead of the merit deputies receiving a $5,000 increase in 2027, they get a $3,000 increase plus the 3% wage increase that all county employees will receive, and then the night shift receive the differential.
After the council discussed her proposal a bit, Cates made a motion only to do the $1 night shift differential, which will cost the county $79,344. The motion failed by a vote of 5-2, with Cates and Councilwoman Rachael Rhoades the only two council members voting for it.
Stockdale then made a motion to follow the committee’s recommendation on the $5,000 increase for merit deputies, on the condition that they don’t get the 3% countywide raise for 2027. The motion passed unanimously.
The sheriff’s office also requested the wage for the warrant/civil specialist be changed to a classification of COMOT 3 from a COMOT 4 under the county’s job classification system. The wage committee recommended the position remain at COMOT 4, and the council approved that recommendation by a vote of 5-2, with Rhoades and Stockdale opposed.
All other wage committee recommendations for other departments were approved as those departments presented their budgets.
Those included making a full-time position in the assessor’s office part-time;approving a truck driver and part-time housekeeper positions for the highway department; moving the Reentry Court coordinator to a Civilian Pole 6 under the county’s wage classification system, the same as the Community Corrections Drug Court; and approving the job/wage classification increases for a sign technician, road foreman, Title IV-D operational supervisor and human resources director.
The council also approved the 3% wage increase for county employees, by a vote of 5-2, with Rhoades and Councilman Dave Wolkins opposed. The 44 merit deputies do not get that increase as they get the $5,000 for 2027. The wage committee had recommended a 2 to 3% raise.
A stipend or wage increase for probation officers was tabled by a vote of 6-1, with Cates opposed, to the Council’s Sept. 10 meeting pending further study.
