Sheriff’s workers agree to pay freeze

By D.a. Wilkinson

LISBON — Law enforcement in Columbiana County has felt the economic pinch.

Workers at the sheriff’s office have agreed to a one-year pay freeze, and CiviGenics, the private company that runs the county jail, has agreed to a new price structure for prisoners.

Sheriff Ray Stone thanked his staff for its decision not to seek a raise in 2010.

The sheriff’s workers in 2009 had a 3 percent raise that added $35,000 to the department’s budget. The sheriff’s workers can reopen the contract in 2011.

Stone also thanked the commissioners for helping his department with an additional $35,000 at the end of 2009.

Under the new contract approved by the commissioners, the union workers will start paying 5 percent of their health-insurance premiums. The commissioners instituted the move for all county employees late last year. A single worker will pay $17 a month for coverage. The largest family plan will cost $68 a month.

Deputies start at $14.32 an hour and rise to $20.63 per hour after five years. Full-time dispatchers start at $13.63 an hour and can go to $16.97 per hour after five years. There are 19 deputies and five full-time dispatchers.

The new contract will not provide an increase in the uniform allowance of $700 per year for deputies and $600 for dispatchers.

Stone said the pact allows him to block workers from taking personal days if it would result in having another staffer work overtime. The sheriff can authorize overtime if needed.

The pact also allows the sheriff to have any deputy have a physical if he believes the worker cannot do his job and place the worker on sick leave if needed.

Workers now can increase their amount of accumulated compensation time from 120 to 160 hours. The pact will allow employees who are about to be laid off to bump any employee with less seniority, regardless of where they work within the sheriff’s office.

Commissioner Jim Hoppel said that the county has a new agreement with Community Education Centers’ subsidiary CiviGenics to continue running the county jail.

Hoppel said the county had been paying CiviGenics about $3.2 million a year to run the jail. Cuyahoga County authorities have stopped using the Columbiana County jail to house overflow prisoners.

Under the new pact, the county will pay per-diem costs of $73 per prisoner if there are 120 or fewer prisoners, $65 if the prisoner count is 121 to 139, $62 if there are between 140 and 159 prisoners and $58.19 if there are 160 or more prisoners.

Hoppel said that despite the poor economy, there were fewer prisoners in the county jail, and CiviGenics was not making money under the old pact.

wilkinson@vindy.com