County, this is no time for a meltdown

Well, it’s that time of year again here in Kootenai County. City and county governments have had the mold cast for their respective budgets and are now just waiting for public hearings before another year of government starts to take life again on Oct. 1. Not surprisingly, many people like me are not happy that taxes are going to go up. Many, if not most, public officials are straining under the weight of public pressure concerning their budget decisions while continuing to provide the services that the public demands. Kootenai County officials feel that pressure as well.

For those of you who are not aware, there are nine elected officials in Kootenai County: Three members of the Board of County Commissioners along with the assessor, clerk, coroner, prosecutor, sheriff, and treasurer. Each of these Constitutional offices exists to perform specific mandated functions of government, however the purse strings in Kootenai County government are exclusively held by the Board of County Commissioners.

Our county commissioners are faced with the daunting task of providing funding for multitudes of mandated services, and each of the elected officials understandably advocates for their piece of the budgetary pie. Money is finite. Nobody wants more taxes. But everyone wants to shorten lines at Driver’s License and Motor Vehicle Licensing; they want their tax questions answered in a timely manner; they want county parks and waterways maintained so they can recreate; and, in addition to a multitude of other county services, perhaps most importantly they want dependable public safety. In the end, the question will always remain: How do we pay for all this?

Without a doubt, all things come with a price whether you work in the private sector or as a public servant. Too often I hear people complain about how great public employees have it over private ones. To tell the truth, in many cases those who are complaining are absolutely correct — depending on where you work, a public service job can be very rewarding, both financially and otherwise. Public service has evolved to what it is, whether you agree with what the pay and benefits are or not — and just like in the private sector, the public sector has a defined market.

With this market comes competition, and with competition there comes the need to assess your spot in the marketplace and take steps to remain competitive, just like people in the private sector do. In the end, if you want to keep the brightest and dedicated employees and provide the best possible service, you must pay a competitive wage. Another way to look at it for those who like to compare public and private work forces is to think about what would happen in the private sector when you start losing well-trained employees to competitors: You lose money and your bottom line is negatively affected.

So here’s where all this is headed: There is a storm brewing in county government over a failure to adequately compensate county employees. Speaking for the men and women of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, I can say without hesitation that there is a significant upheaval over the county’s decisions related to pay and benefits that will equate to a net pay loss for many, if not most, of our employees.

I am told as many as 10-15 deputies plan on leaving to go to local competitors that have significantly higher wages and better benefits. These are deputies whom the taxpayers have paid to train and equip over the years and are taking all the Kootenai County money that was invested in them and leaving for better paying jobs and benefits. Have you heard this before? One Patrol Supervisor called it “Groundhog Day” after the popular movie. You may ask yourself, hasn’t there been study after study that says the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office deputies (and for that matter all county employees) are well below their market for wages? The answer is “Yes.”

No doubt, there are those of you who are reading this saying “here’s another well paid public employee who has great benefits and a retirement who wants even more!” With this in mind, here is an undeniable truth: Our deputy sheriffs and detention deputies do get paid a pretty good wage for our local area, but they are not competitive in their market. With this in mind, I point out that most people who are trying their level best to provide for their families would be remiss in not taking an opportunity to significantly increase their earning potential. And, like it or not, that’s exactly what several well-trained deputy sheriffs plan on doing as a result of a failure to keep them competitive in the local law enforcement market.

By anyone’s standard it’s not a good business decision to have your investment walk out the door to better paying jobs. I could certainly understand not being competitive in wages and benefits if Kootenai County was in similar financial shape as some adjoining counties, but this is simply not the case. As stated in the Cd’A Press editorial on Sunday, Aug. 7, Kootenai County is sitting on a $37 million bank account which is one of at least two places they can go to find the money to fix wages, the other place being the foregone tax balance of nearly $10 million. Now we know they are planning on spending about $17 million on capital projects and keeping $10 million in a rainy day fund. That leaves approximately $10 million. Apparently, the political will is not there to make what is a logical business decision and fix the wage issues at the sheriff’s office (and throughout the rest of the county for that matter).

In closing I offer this analogy: If you were the owner of an ice cream store it’s obvious you would need a good, reliable freezer to run an efficient business. If you were smart you’d buy the best freezer you could afford to ensure nothing went wrong; you’d maintain it to make sure it kept running and you wouldn’t have to worry about it. And most importantly, if the freezer broke you’d find the money to get it fixed — and quickly — because if you didn’t…well, the ice cream melts and you’re out of business.

In Kootenai County government the freezer is broke when it comes to pay and benefits, and once the ice cream is melted, it’ll be pretty hard to fix.

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Ben Wolfinger is Kootenai County sheriff.