Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey has issued a $3.2 million challenge to the County Commission to hire all the deputies he needs to keep the county safe.
The Brevard County Comprehensive Plan calls for two deputies per 1,000 residents who live in county areas outside cities, Ivey said. That would mean 462 deputies for the current unincorporated population of 230,780. Based upon forecast growth, that will mean 480 deputies by 2020, when the same population is expected to grow to 240,000.
But Ivey has only 402 deputies, he said. Bridging the gap under today’s salaries would cost $3.2 million. Recruiting and hiring qualified deputies is one issue. Retaining them is quite another.
From 2016 to 2018, half Ivey’s sworn deputies – or 122 who were authorized to make arrests – left for other nearby sheriff’s offices. “They’re paying more than us,” sheriff’s Chief Financial Officer Greg Palham said. “And the 122 meant $1.17 million we lost (in recruiting costs) with those people.”
Turnover in law enforcement, Ivey said, is expensive. “Each time we lose a veteran employee, we take a $10,000 hit in the recruiting, training and background checks we need to hire these individuals,” he told commissioners in a recent budget workshop.
Losing deputies is a fact of life, the sheriff said, with his counterparts in Orange, Polk, Seminole and Volusia counties, as well as the Orlando Police Department, all paying more.
Most of the former deputies went to Orange County, Ivey said. His figures showed Orange County deputies get a starting salary of $49,233 a year, in contrast to new Brevard deputies at $39,728. Orange County allows its deputies to commute from Brevard – so his former employees didn’t even have to tackle the inconvenience of selling a house and moving.
“I’m fighting an uphill battle,” the sheriff said.
Commissioner John Tobia, of Grant-Valkaria, compared the different county pay rates to an “arms race” with one another. “Where does this stop?” he asked.
The Sheriff’s Office currently works on a $130.1 million budget, as part of the $1.3 billion spending plan the commission approved in September for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1 last fall.
Countywide property-tax payers contributed $148.6 million to the overall budget. But that might increase for the budget that starts on Oct. 1 this year.
The County Charter caps any tax increase to 3 percent or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. For the coming year, the CPI is 2.44 percent. And that means the commission legally could boost the property-tax levy by an additional $3.6 million, County Manager Frank Abbate said. Ivey spoke as commissioners took an advance look Feb. 12 at factors Abbate said might point to increases.
Commissioner Rita Pritchett, of Titusville, said she could never see a budget so tight that first-responder positions would be lost.
“You guys are usually the least of my heartburn,” she said. “I completely understand you needing more officers.”
But Vice Chair Bryan Lober, of Rockledge, was the only one to promise raises to lure more deputies. “I think you make a compelling case,” Lober said. “I certainly support going to any degree in reason to get additional deputies.”
County staff and commissioners will continue to work on the 2019-20 budget throughout the spring and summer prior to budget workshops, plus two public hearings of the proposed tax rates and spending prior to Sept. 30.