Bibb County could start giving bonuses to new sheriff’s deputies, jailers

Bibb County may give bonuses to new officers.

The “New Hire Dividend Program” proposes bonuses for the first 18 months of employment for Bibb sheriff’s deputies and jail officers as a way to attract and retain employees. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office is about 100 employees short, with the largest amount of vacancies being for patrol officers and jailers.

The bonuses would be given out every six months for the first 18 months of employment. New jailers would receive a total of $1,500, while deputies would receive $2,500.

Sheriff David Davis said this measure is a good “stop gap” by providing some extra pay to new employees.

“We need to look at what we need to do with salaries overall,” Davis said. “Not only for deputies at the Sheriff’s Office, but for all employees across county government. This is sort of an interim measure, I would think, until we can do something to make our stating pay a little more attractive.”

Davis said pay and workload discrepancies are two reasons why deputies leave to go work in other jurisdictions.

A certified Bibb deputy starts out making $16.63 per hour. The same position at Columbia County Sheriff’s Office is $19.12 and Houston County is $17.79.

New officers with the Bibb County Board of Education make $18.21 per hour.

Davis said his goal is to hire 50 new deputies during the next fiscal year.

“To find an agency our size and the amount of calls and workload that we have, you really have go to Atlanta from this area,” he said. “So if you can go one or two counties over and make the same amount of money and do a third amount of work, you can see how that might be attractive to someone.”

The new hire program was approved at Tuesday’s commission committee meetings. The final vote is set for April 2.

In order to get the bonus, the employee would have to receive satisfactory marks on their most recent job evaluation.

“For me this is a major point about how can we be fair across the board for everybody by offering an incentive for people who not only want to work but stay here,” said Commissioner Al Tillman, who is sponsoring the bonus resolution. “I think this is really a starting point and then there are more opportunities for men and women to get more incentives by staying and getting ranked.”

The Sheriff’s Office is having a job fair on Thursday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Lizzie Chapel Baptist Church, 1180 Bartlett St.

This story was originally published March 25, 2019 at 3:39 PM.