County Council Hears from Law Enforcement on Budget

Law enforcement officials urged members of the St. Charles County Council to reconfigure the county sheriff department’s pay scale.

The council on Monday held its public hearing for the 2012 budget. A good majority of the comments emanated from county law enforcement officials who argued that the uneven pay scale drove personnel to other departments.

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Bret Jansen, a detective with the St. Charles County Sheriff Department, told the council that he and another member of his agency make the same amount of money – roughly $44,088 – as somebody who has far less experience.

“How could that possibly be that a guy with four years makes the same amount as a guy with 23 years on him?” Jansen said. “It makes no sense at all to me. And that doesn’t float with police work anywhere that I’ve ever been in police work or anywhere I’ve ever seen. You pay for the experience you get.”

While others can make more money working for a municipal police force, Jansen said that he needs to go on state aid in order to make ends meet. He noted that a fellow officer with six years of experience in St. Peters makes over $70,000.

“But I do get state aid to help take care of my family,” said Jansen, adding that he has four kids and a wife that does not work. “And it’s something that I’m embarrassed about. I should be making a hell of a lot more money than I am.”

Jansen asked the council to “work with us” and “get us to where we need to be.”

“Because we are way behind the curve,” Jansen said.

Bill Stark, director of law enforcement for Laborers’ Local 42, said employees appreciate St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann’s efforts to provide raises in the 2012 budget for law enforcement officials.

“I don’t want our intentions or this presentation to be misconstrued by anyone here tonight,” Stark said. “We’re not complaining about proposed raise that Mr. Ehlmann is proposing. We’re very gratified to have that and very glad that he made that proposal. What we’ve attempted to demonstrate to you is a disparity in pay amongst personnel and there’s no pay progression for senior employees.”

Stark noted that officers such as Jansen were provided with a pay scale near the beginning of his tenure “so two, three, four years he would know exactly how much he’d be making.”

“That practice has since fallen by the wayside,” Stark said. “Employees now have no idea what they’ll be making from year-to-year and have found that seniority counts for nothing.”

After the public hearing came to a close, Councilman Jerry Daugherty, D-Portage Des Sioux, said the only way to provide raises to employees “across the board” is to raise property taxes.

“As you all know, this board, the executive’s office and everybody involved in the past have not had an inkling of wanting to do that,” Daugherty said. “There are three of us up here that share the interest to do that.

Daugherty added that deputies should contact members of the council.

LOBBYIST BILL GETS CRITICIZED

The council introduced a bill last night that would execute an agreement for advocacy and lobbying services for St. Charles County.

That measure received criticism from A.C. Dienoff, an O’Fallon resident. He said lobbying for St. Charles County could be conducted by, for instance, by Ehlmann or Director of Administration Chuck Gross. Both are former Republican state senators.

In addition to department heads and other existing county employees, Dienoff also said that the numerous state representatives and state senators that represent St. Charles County are effectively lobbyists for the area.

“We do not need outside sources to do lobbying for us when we can do it in-house,” Dienoff said.

The council did not take any action on the bill.

FIREWORKS BILL TAKEN UP, TABLED

The council did take up a bill . But mostly since Councilman Joe Brazil, R-Defiance, was not present at the meeting, the council decided to table the measure.