Madison Co. sheriff’s deputies getting raises
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JACKSON, Tenn. — Dozens of deputies in Madison County are getting a pay raise. It is an increase the sheriff said is well due so the county does not lose deputies to other counties who pay more. The Madison County Sheriff’s Department said 87 deputies will get a bump in pay starting April 1, some as much as 11 percent, based on experience and education. “We’re about 21 to 22 percent behind everybody else,” Madison County Sheriff John Mehr said Monday. “We were losing deputies to other departments and were constantly in a training ground.” The sheriff’s office announced their new pay schedule policy so employees will know when they are entitled to raises. Mehr said the $145,000 in raises will help bring and keep better workers in Madison County. “People that are better educated, better experience that want to come but they couldn’t come before because of the pay,” Mehr said. County commissioners agreed. “It’s a good step forward for Madison County as a whole,” Madison County Commissioner Gary Deaton said Monday. “If you want good people, there has to be a pay scale there that will attract good people, and that’s exactly what the sheriff’s trying to set up,” Deaton said. County commissioners said the sheriff is going to have to take the pay raises into account in next year’s budget. Madison County residents WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News spoke with said they support the boost in pay. “Anything that’s going to keep them here and keep them working for us,” Madison County resident Jackie Garrett said. “It’s a dangerous place. They risk their lives for us every day. They need to be paid better.” “We’re going to be competitive, and we’re drawing lots of good people for the positions that we’re hiring, and that’s going to be a standard of the future,” Mehr said. The sheriff said they are using money saved from this fiscal year’s unfilled positions to pay for the raises. He said he does not expect resistance from county commissioners to increase salaries on next year’s budget.
