Police Chief Dupuis reviews officer pay
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer County police recruit Darrell Mooring practices his aim at the shooting range.

Chesterfield Police Chief Thierry Dupuis is developing a pay plan to retain his current staff and recruit new officers amid complaints that the county underpays its officers. A report from the Police Employee Retention Team paints a bleak picture of the department's competitiveness in pay and potentially its ability to retain police officers.

"I'd like to be at 95 percent of the market pay, but we're hovering in the low 80s," said Dupuis. The pay policy throughout county departments is to be at 95 percent of market.

A starting Chesterfield officer is paid $38,000 annually compared to $40,326 in Henrico County. Henrico's pay is being hiked to $40,983 on June 21. Goochland County recently upped its starting pay to $42,000.

Not only is Chesterfield's starting pay the lowest of the three major metro counties and the city of Richmond, the rate of pay over the years is compressed. The report says some officers' pay increases as little as $1,800 after five years of service and $3,600 after 10 years. After working for five years in Chesterfield, police officers are still paid less than the starting pay in Henrico.

"Officers are too disillusioned with the department and county management to be inclined to recommend to their friends and neighbors to come to work here," reads the report. Referrals can earn officers a $500 bonus.

Compared to Henrico, Chesterfield's turnover rate is higher, though the comparison is not apples-to-apples. Last year, 9.41 percent of Chesterfield's officers left the force, a higher rate than in the three previous years. Since 2001, 214 officers have moved on, most of them (136) of their own decision, including 41 to work in other law enforcement jobs. The remainder left because of retirement (48), death (5) or termination/involuntary separation (27).

Henrico's most recent data is for July 1, 2006-June 30, 2007, showing that officer turnover was 6.7 percent and 5.3 percent excluding retirements. That's better than Henrico's overall turnover rate of 8.6 percent and 7.1 percent when retirements are excluded for all of that county's departments.

"We're very competitive," said Henrico's Director of Human Resources George Cauble. "We're one of the leading police departments in the state in terms of pay, benefits and reputation. We have the best health care package in the Richmond area at the lowest premium for employees."

Chesterfield's department currently has about 30 officer vacancies. The department can use the money, which would have funded those positions, to pay for overtime. Officers are paid time and a half, and overtime is sometimes mandatory. For the year that ended last June 30, overtime cost the county $1.27 million, but this year's overtime pay is outpacing that. From July 1 last year to the end of January, it was $822,800.

Overtime is necessary in part because the county has fewer police officers covering twice the area of Henrico. The report says Chesterfield has 1.63 police officers for every 1,000 citizens. The national average for Chesterfield's population grouping is 2.5.

While many citizens criticized the board for recently cutting the property tax rate by two cents, pay for police, fire/EMS and teachers was not affected. The monetary impact was made in adjustments to capital projects. The budget provides a 4 percent merit pay increase and another 1.25 percent for jobs where Chesterfield has to be more competitive, which includes the police department.

The new board - with four new members serving just 100 days before the budget was approved - has expressed support for the department.

"Some board members want to help but feel it will take more than one budget cycle," explained Kevin Carroll, who heads the Fraternal Order of Police. "To retain officers, they're going to have to address the pay issue. The officers are grateful for the 4 percent raise, but more has to be done to get us to parity."

Because residential reevaluations of existing homes went up an average of 11 percent last January, there was a source of new revenue for a higher county budget and more school spending. But the Real Estate Assessor's Office is projecting flat assessments for this year, meaning salary increases may be difficult to fund next year. Members of the Budget and Audit Committee, which includes two supervisors, have discussed the property tax rate and haven't ruled out recommending raising it for FY10.

To view the police retention report, visit www.chesterfieldobserver.com, and click on "special" in the left-hand menu.