Alamance County’s commissioners did nothing to resist, obstruct, or delay the sheriff this week when he approached them for continued permission to give out signing bonuses to his agency’s newest recruits.
The county’s governing board had originally put sheriff Terry Johnson and his subordinates through their paces when they first sought these $10,000 bonuses this spring in order to address a persistent shortage of detention officers and deputies in the agency’s ranks.
Although the commissioners refused to include these bonuses in the county’s current annual budget, they invited the sheriff to renew his request after the budget’s adoption in June. Johnson returned to the commissioners a month later, and they ultimately voted 4-to-1 to let him offer the $10,000 enticements in installments to incoming recruits who’ve made contractual commitments to remain in the sheriff’s employ for at least 22 months.
In order to cover the cost of these bonuses, the commissioners agreed to let the sheriff dip into the lapsed salaries that his agency was expected to have in light of its numerous vacancies, which included more than 70 openings for jailers and patrol deputies. The commissioners told the sheriff that he could offer the bonuses until he has filled 80 percent of those critical posts. They nevertheless made an added condition that he could only pay out 10 bonuses at a time before he had to return to them for continued authorization.
The sheriff ultimately came back to the commissioners on Tuesday with the admission that these bonuses have proven even more popular than he and his colleagues had previously hoped.
“Since July 1, we have had 93 total applications,” Johnson acknowledged that afternoon. “Of those 93, 65 applications were kicked to the side because of their previous history, and 28 remain in process, and of those 28, 12 have received conditional offers.”
The sheriff elaborated that the 65 applications which were rejected came from candidates with criminal histories, drug use issues, or no driver’s licenses as well as those who failed his department’s psychological exam or had problems in previous law enforcement positions.
Johnson went on to share the anticipated start dates for each of these prospective new hires before he reminded the commissioners of the pledge they had made when they set the 10-bonus quota in July.
“You said that when we got 10 [bonus recipients] hired to come back,” the sheriff declared, “so I’ve come back.”
This time, the commissioners didn’t put up any resistance to the sheriff’s request for another 10 bonuses, which they readily approved by a margin of 5-to-0. Included in this unanimous vote was commissioner Pam Thompson who had cast the only dissent against the sheriff’s request in July.
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