‘We keep sinking’

COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris believes a deadly shooting this week underscored how staffing challenges tied to wages are compromising public safety.

County commissioners disagree on how to solve the problem — or whether it exists at all.

When the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office responded Monday night to a report of a fire and a shooting with multiple victims, deputies sent out three pages for additional personnel to help secure the scene.

Only two deputies responded.

Norris said the inadequate response was because of severe staffing shortages at the jail, which have stretched the remaining staff thin.

“I feel like we’re on a ship and we keep plugging these holes, but we keep sinking,” he said Wednesday.

Between dispatch, patrol and the jail, KCSO has 36 vacant positions.

Patrol deputies are reportedly working overtime at the jail and at dispatch. Norris said some deputies are simply too fatigued after working 40 to 60 hours of overtime in two weeks to respond to another page.

Kootenai County Commissioner Chris Fillios said that explanation doesn’t match the county’s data.

“It isn’t anywhere near as severe or dire as (Norris) paints it,” Fillios said.

County payroll data reportedly shows that only three patrol deputies worked overtime at the jail during the last six months.

Norris said he doesn’t believe payroll data accurately reflects where deputies are working. Patrol deputies assigned to the jail are still paid as if they’re on patrol, he said.

“No matter where I put them, it’s not going to be reflected on payroll,” he said, adding that two patrol deputies have been assigned to the jail full-time in the last six months.

The average overtime worked by any jail employee during the same time frame is reportedly 98 hours, or about 3.7 hours per week.

A handful of employees worked significantly more overtime hours than the average, according to county payroll data.

Norris said those numbers don’t reflect the daily workings at KCSO, either.

Fillios said the data speaks for itself.

“We have to go by the information we have,” he said. “If (Norris) is doing things differently and we’re unaware of it, how do we deal with that?”

KCSO hasn’t lost any deputies to other law enforcement agencies, Norris said. Rather, the staff who leave generally go into other industries that offer better pay. Some have left North Idaho entirely, citing housing costs.

Still, Fillios said he doesn’t believe KCSO’s staffing challenges are solely due to wages, which are comparable to other area agencies.

Pay for detention deputies in Kootenai County tops out around $62,000, compared to around $63,000 in Spokane.

Norris pointed out that it can take many years for employees to reach the top of the pay scale for their positions.

Commissioner Leslie Duncan said the solution may be more complicated than simply raising wages across the board.

“Unfortunately, throwing money at certain problems doesn’t solve them,” she said. “Things like the housing deficiency, labor shortage and the nature of high-stress jobs are not under the control of the commissioners.”

In Spokane County, detention deputy jobs are advertised with a $7,500 hiring bonus. That jail still has 27 current job openings, seven more than in November.

“Money isn’t solving their problems,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bonner County has a single posted opening for a detention deputy. The job pays $22.02 per hour.

Fillios said the BOCC allocated $2.8 million this year for wage increases countywide.

He expects a wage study completed this week by an outside firm to shed more light on which positions are paid adequately and which should be paid more.

Pay for detention deputies in Kootenai County starts at $20.71, with raises in the first year and benefits.

Commissioner Bill Brooks advocates for increasing pay for detention deputies by $5 an hour across the board as a start. He said commissioners can make that happen now, with the county’s current budget.

“I think we need to reassign what we’re spending now,” he told The Press this week. “Having good pay and great benefits are foundational.”

If commissioners raise property taxes by 3 percent — the maximum allowed per fiscal year under Idaho law — the county could see as much as $1.5 million in increased revenue, Fillios said.

That would cover raises for KCSO employees, but it wouldn’t account for associated expenses like benefits and more patrol cars for new deputies.

It would also leave nothing for other county employees.

Fillios said it’s impractical to funnel such resources to the department with the lowest turnover rate while other departments are hemorrhaging staff.

Last year, 45 employees exited KCSO, a total of 15.8%.

Except for district court, which saw a 16.2% turnover, all other county departments lost between 21% and 37% of their staff.

“We can’t ignore that we’re losing county employees,” Fillios said.

What’s not up for debate, Norris said, is that Kootenai County is growing rapidly and the need for law enforcement is growing proportionally.

Violent crime has reportedly trended upward. It spiked in 2021, according to KCSO, with 165 violent crimes reported — 59 more than the previous year.

Meanwhile, Norris said, patrol staffing has not changed significantly in recent years, despite increased population. Five patrol deputies and one sergeant worked the day shift in February 2009; the same was true in February 2021.

The jail reportedly operates at functional capacity most of the time. More than 80% of those incarcerated at any given time are facing felony charges — a reversal from years past, when misdemeanor offenders made up the bulk of the inmate population.

“We need staff to secure these inmates and provide them with the necessary minimum requirements of food, clean linens and medical,” Norris said.