Sheriff chides low deputy pay

A series of social media posts from Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton this week rebuked what he called less than competitive wages for deputies, noting more than a dozen current vacancies in his department and imploring the public for support. A petition was started calling on county commissioners to “fully fund” the Sheriff’s Office, an online effort that had already received more than 2,000 signatures hours after being posted Wednesday, the sheriff said.

In the days leading up to the petition, the Sheriff Jimmy Thornton Facebook page has been inundated with messaages from residents and Sheriff’s Office employees, who expressed their dissatisfaction over deputy wages and their concerns for safety, while also chiding county officials for the perceived slight of the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office.

The petition is entitled: “Tell the Commissioners: Fully Fund the Sampson Sheriff’s Office!”

“We must support our Deputies, Guards and Patrolmen,” the petition reads. “Sampson County Sheriff’s Office has four deputies on patrol at night when we need at least eight. That puts citizens at risk and deputies, guards, and patrolmen at risk. The Sheriff’s Office needs to replace 13 deputies, guards and patrolmen who’ve left.”

Sampson County’s tax rate is higher than any surrounding county, the petition notes. The county’s rate stands at 82.5 cents per $100 valuation.

“But, at the same time, we pay our deputies, guards, and patrolmen less than surrounding counties,” the petition stated. “To replace the deputies, guards, and patrolmen we’ve lost, and to keep our county safe, we need to pay law enforcement officer’s competitive salaries.”

The message requests that people sign and share the petition supporting funding law enforcement, by signing their name.

“These vacancies make it unsafe for citizens and deputies,” Sheriff Jimmy Thornton stated via his Facebook page. “That leads to one last question: Do we have the right spending priorities? Here’s a fact: Sampson County does collect enough taxes. It doesn’t need to raise taxes. But we do need to set priorities – and spend tax money wisely.”

“I want the best for our citizens and try my best to provide the protection and services they deserve. It’s hard to do this with an underfunded staff, which has led to many vacancies throughout my agency,” Thornton stated. “These vacancies make us less safe.”

It was a post by Sampson Board of Commissioners chairwoman Sue Lee that prompted the initial response from Thornton.

“As one of the five county commissioners in Sampson County, I want to share some facts,” Lee led off in her post from the beginning of this week. “The county manager’s salary has been the topic on (Facebook) quite a bit lately. Last year, the average starting salary for this position in NC was over $300,000 and our county manager is paid tens of thousands less than this. The county manager serves at the direction of the board of commissioners. I, too, am deeply appreciative of our sheriff’s and detention center employees who do a great job and give so much of themselves serving our county. I truly wish we could pay them what they deserve.”

She noted the county’s tax rate being higher than that of surrounding counties. She also cited a 12.1% salary increase the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office received during that past fiscal year. Detention department salaries were increased 17.1%, she noted.

“The commissioners have been diligently working on getting them where they need to be,” she stated.

“Had we funded all of the budget requests from our departments, that would have added almost (30 cents) to our current rate of (82.5 cents per $100) rate,” Lee noted. “The sheriff’s department asked for a 25% increase over last year, and we were only able to increase it by 6%, which came to over a $765,000 increase over last fiscal year’s budget for the sheriff/detention budget. This is the highest funded department in the county. The city and county school budgets together do not reach this level. We chose not to fund many items from all across the county because there was simply not enough money.”

She said the shortage of employees for the sheriff’s department been an issue since she became a commissioner.

Lee, the Republican representative for District 3, was elected in 2014, making history as the first female county commissioner in Sampson, then the first female vice-chair and chair of the board.Lee had no opposition in her primary earlier this year and similarly has no competition in November. Thornton, the five-term Republican sheriff, is in the same spot with no challengers, poised for his sixth four-year term to start at the end of the year.

“As commissioners, we cannot be one dimensional in our budget-making process,” Lee stated, pointing citizens to the county’s budget, inflation at a “40-year high” and the adverse effects of raising taxes to pay for raises. “If you get anything out of this post,” Lee concluded, “let it be that we appreciate all of our law enforcement employees, as well as the remaining county employees.”

Thornton took exception to the Sheriff’s Office being labeled the “highest funded department in the county.”

“If you go on the county website, you can see its overall total budget is roughly $170 million,” Thornton stated. “You can also see the county spends $18.4 million on schools (education), $16.1 million on Social Services, and $14.2 million on the Sheriff’s Office. So the Sheriff’s Office is not ‘the highest funded department.’”

In May, County Manager Ed Causey highlighted the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office in his 2022-23 budget message. He did say that the tax support received by the Sheriff’s Office is more than any other department in the county.

“Last year, we reported that their total expenditures had increased 62% over the last 10 years,” Causey stated in May. “We applaud the department for their willingness to enter into a contract to house federal prisoners. Unfortunately, we are projecting $336,891 less in the proposed federal contract than last year.

“All departments should be very proud of their efforts and accomplishments in generating revenue. Relative to the net cost of operating the Detention Center and Sheriff’s Office, the net tax support to operate their operations (operating expenses less revenues) is $11,061,873,” Causey stated, using proposed budgetary figures for 2022-23. “This total amount of tax support increases significantly when the debt service for their building is included. This is more tax support than received by any other department and each of the school systems, including the community college.”

The back-and-forth between the county and its Sheriff’s Office is the latest chapter in what has been an ongoing divide.

A lawsuit filed earlier this year by 34 current and former Sampson County Sheriff’s Office employees alleges that they were not properly compensated by the County of Sampson as required by law, maintaining that pay was withheld “in an amount in excess of $25,000.”

As part of the Sampson County 2022-23 budget, adopted last month, the county set aside $100,000 to defend against the lawsuit.

The employees cited federal law and Sampson County’s Personnel Resolution as it pertains to overtime pay, and maintained they were shortchanged by the county in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“At all times, Plaintiffs have been employed with SCSO until approximately November of 2020, Defendant has not paid Plaintiffs for hours worked between 160 and 171 hours in a 28 day pay cycle,” the complaint alleges. “Defendant has altered Plaintiffs’ timesheets by deleting hours recorded by Plaintiffs for work performed between 160 and 171 hours in a 28 day pay cycle.”

In the adopted 2022-23 Sampson County budget ordinance, county administrative staff comprehensively outlined work schedule and overtime rules, seemingly in response to the pending lawsuit.

“Overtime work must be of an unusual, unscheduled, or emergency nature and be directed or authorized by the department head or an authorized representative of the department head,” a county budget ordinance stated. “Except for overtime work of an emergency nature, approval for all overtime work must be obtained from the county manager in advance.”