Hubbard County Sheriff Cory Aukes informed the Hubbard County Board of Commissioners at Tuesday's meeting that at a recent work session the commissioners were presented with inaccurate numbers in regards to the amount of part time pay within the sheriff's department.
Aukes expressed interest in creating two full time jailer positions and promoting within.
"You were presented that we had spent $167,000 in part time wages; we actually spent $233,000 and we actually budgeted $313,000, so we came in well under budget this year," he said. "This is where the money will come from to cover these positions. We won't have to ask for any additional taxpayer dollars at all."
According to Aukes, they budgeted $358,842 for part time wages for the year 2017. Currently, the department is under budget so there are adequate funds to pay for these positions. The only difference in cost is benefits, which is also covered under the current budget.
"This will help immensely in scheduling for shifts," Aukes said about the need for full time employees. "This will be the biggest benefit to the county, you can call them a utility position where they can move around where they're most needed. They're full time positions but they can cover where needed."
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Aukes told commissioners, the people are already in place and that it is just a matter of making them full time staff.
The sheriff's request was approved by the county commissioners.
Aukes also asked commissioners for their approval to create four Sergeant positions within the Hubbard County Jail.
"Just after the jail was built, we actually had these positions in place for nearly 10 years now and they're called team leaders," Aukes said. "For whatever reason, there was never a job description created and there needs to be, and there needs to be board approval."
Aukes reiterated to the board that these positions already exist and they are already filled, and it is just a matter of changing their titles from "Team Leaders" to Sergeants.
Currently, the positions are not classified on the wage grade. Deb Thompson, Hubbard County coordinator, researched the classification of the positions, determining they would be a grade 26.
"The development of the job description that we've done added both responsibility and different duties to it than what the assignment of the team leader's duties were," Thompson explained. "We're suggesting that this goes toward a supervisor position."
"As far as wage wise it comes in between a regular jailer and the Assistant Jail Administrator," Aukes said.
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The board voted unanimously to approve the request.
