The Sedgwick County Commission approved a three dollar per hour pay raise for detention deputies and corporals at the county jail.
Sheriff Jeff Easter says the jail is currently short 98 employees, thanks to the pandemic and higher pay offered by other nearby agencies. Even the Sheriff has had to fill in at the jail to help with the shortage, on Tuesday night and once in the prior week. He says the county must act now.
Commissioner Jim Howell made a substitute motion to defer the item one week for more study but it failed. Ultimately, the commission unanimously approved the pay increase. $2.1 million in salary savings elsewhere in the county will be used to support it.
The commission also approved a grant award of $197 thousand through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to purchase two gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis systems. The equipment will assist efforts at the Regional Forensic Science Center.