GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) – The Greenville County Council filed their final budget amendments on Thursday afternoon, following a nearly three-hour workshop on Tuesday night.
One lengthy discussion centered around the pay increase for public safety employees.
Multiple council members, including District 20 representative Steve Shaw and District 17 Representative Joey Russo, followed up on a proposal that would offer a 6% raise to public safety employees.
"I know a big emphasis is getting money towards the roads and trying to keep as much money as possible to do roadwork, but at the same time being able to use a portion of that to go towards much needed public safety salary raises," Russo said.
Currently, the budget includes only a 3% salary increase for all positions, including public safety.
That came as a disappointment to Greenville County Sheriff, Hobart Lewis, who requested a 12% raise for deputies back in March.
"Had the county council worked on the budget and said, ‘Hey, what are we paying our people?’ You only took what the county administrator said at 3% and started to get defensive when people started asking," Lewis said.
At the podium, Lewis explained the difficulty his office has retaining and recruiting deputies, due to neighboring municipalities, like Greenville City Police, offering higher salaries.
Greenville City gave their people a dollar an hour across the board, two dollars an hour for night shifts, plus a 5% budget increase for this year for them," he said. "They are our neighbors. We work well together, but they’re competition.
They have also added 26 new positions in Greenville City," Lewis continued. "They will not be looking for these positions in Myrtle Beach and Columbia; they will be looking for them right here in Greenville.
The budget allows for 12 new deputies. Lewis proposed giving up that money to help offset the raise for current employees.
He said the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office already has 21 positions to fill.
“We want to give as much as we get. If the county saw fit for us to get 12 positions that what we could afford, we would be more than willing to pitch in and give those positions up to get this increase passed,” Lewis said.
Russo said now is the time to support public safety, not just when running for office.
The city has been very aggressive with increasing, especially their office or salaries, but keep in mind," said Russo. "This is for all of public safety. We’re thinking EMS, corners office, detention, the whole bunch. It’s a huge competition between Greenville County and Greenville City and we have to keep up. There’s no ands, ifs or butts. We have to increase salaries. We have to be competitive with our closest neighbors when it comes to public safety.
A final vote on the budget is scheduled for next Tuesday.
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