AGENDA DATE: 11/6/2024
TITLE:
Title
Amendments to Albemarle County Fire Rescue and Sheriff's Office FY25 Pay Scales
BODY
SUBJECT/PROPOSAL/REQUEST: Request adoption of amended Fiscal Year (FY) 25 Albemarle County Fire Rescue (ACFR) and Sheriff’s Office pay scales
ITEM TYPE: Consent Action Item
STAFF CONTACT(S): Richardson, Henry, Bessette, Rice
PRESENTER (S): N/A
LEGAL REVIEW: Yes
REVIEWED BY: Jeffrey B. Richardson
BACKGROUND: Albemarle County maintains a classified employee pay scale and separate public safety pay scales for the Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, and Department of Fire and Rescue. Each year, the Board of Supervisors approves the pay scales for County staff in conjunction with the adoption of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The pay scales set forth pay ranges in a grading system that are established through the County’s classified and public safety compensation strategy.
STRATEGIC PLAN: Workforce & Customer Service - Recruit & retain engaged public servants who provide quality government services to advance our mission.
DISCUSSION: The FY25 pay scales for classified and public safety personnel were adopted on May 1, 2024, the same meeting during which the FY25 budget was adopted. The Department of Fire Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office are now requesting approval for modifications to the FY25 pay scales (Attachment A).
Fire Rescue
The Department of Fire Rescue has identified a cost savings strategy to provide supervision and oversight for the new ladder truck, while ensuring there is adequate management coverage for 2 pieces of heavy equipment deployed from the same station. In the adopted budget, there were funds to support 3 Captains for this responsibility. Fire Rescue has more narrowly focused the responsibility of those positions and is now able to fill them at a lower supervisory rank. This request is to approve a frontline supervisor role of Lieutenant, which is positioned as an assistant to an existing Captain and is a more cost-effective method to add additional units and/or personnel to a fire station with an existing Captain. The proposed scale modification adds the position of Lieutenant to the scale to reflect a front-line supervisory position that can be assigned to smaller scale teams and operations and better leverage the skills of the Fire Captain for more complex assignments. Three Captain positions will be converted to fill the Lieutenant role.
Sheriff’s Office
The Sheriff’s Office currently has four Sergeants and a Chief Deputy Sheriff in supervisory positions. The Sergeants supervise Sheriff Deputies serving in singular functional areas. The Chief Deputy Sheriff oversees all of the operations and processes, asset management, financial, and administrative functions. The proposed pay scale change is to create a Lieutenant role in the department to provide day-to-day supervision of the Sergeants and manage assets. One of the Sergeant positions would be converted to fill the Lieutenant role.
BUDGET IMPACT: The Fire Rescue request will result in overall savings of approximately $30,000. The Sheriff’s Office request will be completed through vacancy savings and would result in overall savings of approximately $25,000 once completed.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends adoption of the attached Resolution (Attachment B) to approve the revised FY 25 ACFR and Sheriff pay scales (Attachment A).
ATTACHMENTS:
A - FY25 Public Safety Amended Pay Scales
B - Resolution