Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter talked to county commissioners Tuesday about staffing issues with his commissioned deputies and detention deputies, and he says pay needs to be competitive to keep from losing staff to other law enforcement agencies.

Easter told the commission during their weekly staff meeting that he is budgeted for 228 employees in the jail, and there are 110 vacancies, so the vacancy rate is 49 percent.  He said recruiting efforts have produced few candidates and he is starting to lose commissioned deputies to communities like Maize and Derby.    He said the commissioned deputies are not getting pay that is competitive with other local agencies, and he has lost three deputies in the past three weeks.   Easter said resignations have increased because of higher pay from other agencies and burnout from low staffing.   He said he is also looking at strategies for staffing the jail in light of the current employee numbers.   Easter said it’s a pay issue, not a management issue, and a long-term pay plan has to be put into place.   He said pay needs to be in the $23.50 per hour range for commissioned and detention deputies.

County Commissioner Lacey Cruse said it’s not just a pay issue, it’s a system issue.  She said there are inmates who are not violent and not a danger to themselves or others who could bond out of jail and go into community-based services.   Commission Chairman David Dennis said he agrees on having community-based programs, but they can’t be implemented overnight and that won’t solve the staffing issues today.

County Manager Tom Stolz said the only way to solve the issue is a multi-faceted approach, and he said there are up to nine action steps that he has identified.  He said community-based programs have had their own staffing challenges and may not be able to take on additional inmates.    Stolz said “at the end of the day, we’re going to have to determine if there’s enough resources, enough money to do what we have to do or do we need new money coming in to solve this problem.”  He suggested revising the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and working on the money and systems problems through that body.

Commissioners expect to hear more from staff next week on a strategy to address the jail staffing problems and other issues.