SNOW HILL – County officials this week granted a request from the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office for more full-time deputies.
The Worcester County Commissioners on Tuesday voted 6-1 to grant Sheriff Matt Crisafulli’s request to convert five part-time positions to full-time. The change is meant to address recruitment and retention concerns.
“Filling these five positions is absolutely mission critical to sustain the level of service that we provide to Worcester County,” Crisafulli said.
The sheriff approached the commissioners this week asking for the conversion of five part-time positions to full-time as well as an increase in the pay grade for deputies in training. Crisafulli said he hadn’t received any part-time applications since March. In the last two years, he’s received a total of 15 part-time applications.
The office is, however, receiving full-time applications.
“We are projecting the departure of a number of part-time personnel in the coming year as a result of recent legislative mandates, specifically an increase in in-service training and physical agility requirements,” he said. “Also, we have some full-time personnel that are considering leaving in the near future … We are forecasting significant recruitment challenges and we need to strike while the iron’s hot while we have these full-time positions.”
The challenges the department is facing include sign-on bonuses and pay incentives being offered by other agencies, such as Maryland State Police. He said the Salisbury Police Department was offering a $25,000 sign on bonus.
Crisafulli said that by converting the proposed five part-time positions to full-time the cost would only be $12,000.
“We’re seeing it at the state level and we’re seeing it at the local level,” he said. “All of these agencies are offering incentive packages to bring on personnel. So it’s a huge challenge looking down the road on how are we going to compete with these agencies? We feel this is a good recruiting tool while we currently have this pool of full-time applications.”
Commissioner Ted Elder asked about the office’s current staffing levels. Crisafulli said he had 64 full-time positions and 32 part-time positions, 10 of which were open.
“If you’re gracious enough to grant this it will take us to 69 full-time and 27 part-time,” he said.
Elder asked what would keep new employees here if other agencies were offering bonuses.
“People still want to work here in Worcester County,” Crisafulli said. “I do believe that we have a phenomenal county where all of our agencies work together. I don’t have a crystal ball to say who may potentially leave but the fulltime applications that we’ve received and the feedback we get, those men and women want to work in Worcester County because of the services we do provide, because of the type of residential community we have, the type of business community we have.”
Elder pointed out the sheriff’s office’s budget had increased in recent years.
“I’m just looking at the cost of this going forward,” he said. “What I understand is we have new mandates coming down from that state that’s going to cost us quite a bit of money next year and I’m concerned about where all this money’s coming from.”
Crisafulli said it was his responsibility to keep the county safe and if it wasn’t safe nothing else mattered.
Elder said it was the commissioners’ responsibility to keep an eye on county spending.
“We have one of the lowest tax rates in the state of Maryland and I’d like to keep it that way,” he said.
Commissioner Bud Church said that during the summer Ocean City was the second largest community in the state and as such needed sufficient law enforcement.
“The majority of the group that comes in are not always the friendliest so I’m very much in favor of having a strong sheriff’s department,” he said. “That’s part of what makes our county so great.”
Commissioner Joe Mitrecic echoed Elder’s fiscal concerns but said he wouldn’t deny Crisafulli’s request.
“It’s $12,000 this year but what’s it going to be next year?” he said. “That’s what concerns me.”
The commissioners voted 6-1, with Elder opposed, to approve converting the positions and increasing the pay for deputies in training.
