Sheriff Deputies to Get Pay Raise

RISON - The Cleveland County Quorum Court unanimously approved a request by Sheriff Jack Rodgers Monday night to increase deputy pay by about 15 percent to make the Cleveland County Sheriff's Department more competitive with other departments in the region when it comes to hiring officers. Meanwhile, the court also approved hiring a new geographic information service to take over addressing, mapping and parcel plotting within the county, and approved the purchase of a road grader and other equipment. Those issues and others were addressed during the quorum court's regular monthly meeting Monday night at the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building in Rison. Sheriff Rodgers told the quorum during a special called meeting on Feb. 16 that he was having problems finding and keeping sheriff deputies, and asked the court to look at raising the pay schedule to make the sheriff's department more competitive. During Monday night's meeting, Rodgers showed up with some additional data for the justices of the peace to review. He said he surveyed sheriff departments in the surrounding counties as well as others in the region and found that the average starting pay for a deputy was $17.67 per hour. Cleveland County's starting pay was $15.15 per hour. Eventually, after discussing some different options, the quorum court approved a motion by Justice Charles Rodgers to increase the starting pay for a new deputy to $17.50 per hour; for the lieutenant's position to $18 per hour; and for the chief deputy's position to $18.50 per hour. His motion was approved unanimously by a roll call vote. Under the new pay schedule, the starting pay for a new level 3 deputy will jump from $31,520 to $36,400, the sheriff reported. Before the vote was taken, Sheriff Rodgers noted that neighboring Calhoun County, which has a smaller population than Cleveland County, had a starting pay of $17.30 per hour for deputies while the Union County She...