New rate of $185K represents 19.4 percent increase
Alamance County’s governing board has extended a pay raise to sheriff Terry Johnson that will add roughly $30,000 a year to the earnings of this six-term Republican.
Despite opposition from one of its members, the board of commissioners voted 4-to-1 on Monday to hike Johnson’s base pay from $155,077 to $185,000 a year. This increase, which amounts to a spike of nearly 19.4 percent, is slated to take effect when the county’s next pay period begins on November 1.
In justifying this mid-budget change in remuneration, the commissioners who backed Johnson’s pay raise cited his more than two decades of service as sheriff as well as the personal attention he gives to his agency’s operations. Several commissioners also suggested that the sheriff’s wages had stagnated – a perception that Johnson had helped foster with hints that he’d been waiting five years since his last raise from the commissioners.
This assertion, which the sheriff had personally shared with The Alamance News ahead of Monday’s decision, was nevertheless undercut by Alamance County’s manager Heidi York, who assured the commissioners that Johnson has received several, incremental pay hikes since 2021.
“He did receive a market adjustment back in 2023/2024 of 3 percent,” York recalled after one of the commissioners called on her to confirm Johnson’s claim, “and he has received a cost of living adjustment the same as every other county employee year after year.”
In fact, the figures at the county manager’s disposal showed that these incremental increases had lifted Johnson’s compensation by 21.3 percent since 2021, when his salary stood at $127,797 a year.
[Story continues below special subscription offer.]
TO KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST LOCAL NEWS – INCLUDING THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS – SUBSCRIBE TO THE ALAMANCE NEWS. Both in print each week and online every day, there’s nowhere you’ll find more LOCAL NEWS. JUST $50 FOR UNLIMITED ONLINE ACCESS – and for Alamance County residents, price includes a print copy by mail.
The arguments for the sheriff’s raise also failed to impress commissioner Pam Thompson, who went on to cast the lone vote of dissent against the increase.
A one-time Republican who is now unaffiliated with any political party, Thompson admitted that one of her first votes as a commissioner had been to unfreeze Johnson’s pay after a period of pandemic-era austerity. She added, however, that salary-related concerns subsequently prompted her to break with the rest of the board when it voted to hire York as well as the county’s current tax administrator. Thompson also recalled the tough financial choices that she and her fellow commissioners made earlier this year as they deliberated over the county’s current annual budget.
“We had to raise taxes,” she went on to remind her colleagues, “and we need to make sure we do right by the public.”
In making her case against Johnson’s pay raise, Thompson compared his prospective new salary to the rather sizable sums that sheriffs command in some of the state’s largest counties. She noted, for instance, that Forsyth County’s sheriff earns $179,962 a year to safeguard some 399,000 residents, while Mecklenburg County pays its sheriff $237,588 to patrol a population of more than 1.2 million. By contrast, Thompson observed that Johnson’s prospective increase would give him $185,000 a year in a jurisdiction of just 184,259 people.
[Story continues below photos.]
Commissioner Pam Thompson illustrates some other larger counties and the salaries they pay their sheriff, as well as each county’s respective tax rate.
This apparent discrepancy also raised the eyebrows of Anthony Pierce, a former Democratic contender for the GOP-dominated board of commissioners. During a designated public comment period on Monday, Pierce argued that a law enforcement official who pockets $185,000 a year isn’t something he’d expect to see in a place like Alamance County.
“An increase of 30-k in base salary doesn’t align with our similarly sized counties,” he added, “and I think [the funds] could be better used in other departments and in the sheriff’s department [for other purposes].”
Yet, these appeals to the board’s sense of frugality didn’t faze any of four Republicans who presently serve in its membership.
In response to the pay raise’s critics, commissioner Kelly Allen pointed to the diligence and hard work that she believes Johnson has evinced in his 23 years as sheriff.
“I know he works 24-7,” she argued, “and if something happens, he jumps right up; he doesn’t leave it to his men. So, we have to think about what he handles and the responsibility he assumes – and for not having had a raise in five years, I don’t think it’s a lot to ask.”
“I have no problem giving this sheriff the pay that he deserves,” agreed fellow Republican Ed Priola. “It’s about time, in fact, for a pay raise, and you don’t have to raise taxes to make this decision. . . So I’ll own this decision. . . Sheriff, I’m with you.”
Meanwhile, Steve Carter, the vice chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, took a direct swipe at Thompson’s cross-county comparisons of salaries. Carter went on to contend that York had assembled her own set of comparisons, which he said drilled in on counties where “our people run” in pursuit of more pay.
“There’s another issue, too, of compression in the sheriff’s office,” he added. “You can’t pay somebody that’s a major or a chief deputy more than the sheriff.”
Carter was in for a rude awakening, however, when he called on the county manager to back up his claims about the sheriff’s compensation. York went on to admit that Johnson was already earning a bit more than the $152,952 that his counterparts pulled in on average in the nine “benchmark” jurisdictions which she had reviewed.
“As far as compression issues,” she continued, “we do not see that in the current salaries of his staff.”
Yet, in the end, these finer points didn’t seem all that persuasive to John Paisley, Jr., who serves as the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners.
“Alamance County had some real problems with the office of sheriff prior to [Johnson’s arrival],” Paisley summed up before Monday’s vote. “Terry Johnson came in, and all that changed. . . and we continue to be the county that everybody looks to for leadership from the sheriff.”
Paisley went on to join the 4-to-1 decision in support of Johnson’s new pay rate – which drew its sole vote of opposition from Thompson.
The board’s only unaffiliated member nevertheless closed ranks with her fellow commissioners in another salary-related decision, which sets the default pay for any newcomer who snags either of the two elected positions that oversee county departments or agencies.
In the case of the sheriff’s post, the commissioners decided to roll back the associated compensation to $130,594 a year should someone other than Johnson prevail when this office appears on the ballot next year. At the moment, two other Republicans have already announced they’ll seek this position, which Johnson likewise intends to pursue for the seventh time in 2026.
The commissioners also set a default salary of $74,275 for the county’s register of deeds in the event that someone other than the incumbent registrar, Republican David Barber, secures this position.
