GarCo to pay $2,000 bonuses to new jailers

By DENNIS WEBB
The Daily Sentinel

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said he will offer $2,000 hiring bonuses as the newest way of trying to address understaffing at the county jail.

Vallario also will offer a $500 recruiting incentive to employees who provide leads to people who end up being hired and work out well for the Sheriff’s Department.

The moves are the latest by Vallario to deal with a jail that has been 20 to 25 percent below full staffing for the last year.

Last fall, he increased starting jail deputy pay to $18.66 an hour. The 11 percent raise equalized pay between patrol and detention deputies.

However, Vallario continues to struggle to find enough help in an area where many employers in both the public and private sectors face similar problems.

He said he worries that overtime shifts and a reduction in training opportunities may be pushing a dedicated detention staff to its limits.

“If we don’t provide relief, I fear that the vacancy rate will get worse,” Vallario said in a memo to county commissioners.

He said if the bonuses work, they may be something other county departments might want to try, he said. He noted that many employers in the area already provide bonuses for new hires.

Vallario plans to pay for the program from an annual U.S. Department of Justice grant his department receives to help deal with apprehension of criminal aliens. Employee recruitment, retention and training are allowable expenses under the grant.

Vallario said the bonuses might help new employees with moving expenses, rental deposits or purchase of equipment not provided by the Sheriff’s Department. Finding housing and coming up with down payments or rental deposits is a major challenge for workers moving to the Glenwood Springs area because of high housing and rental costs.

The Sheriff’s Department will need to work out details of the program to make sure the hiring and recruitment bonuses aren’t paid out prematurely, to guard against cases in which new hires don’t work out, Vallario said.

E-mail Dennis Webb at dwebb@gjds.com.