At April 11th Board meeting, Spotsylvania Career Firefighters Association President Justin Langridge spoke during the public comment period to address insinuations that County staff did not have enough time to review the Public Safety employee compensation plan presented by the Fire Chief and Sheriff in January 2019. Mr. Langridge claimed that the plan was presented to the Public Safety Committee in October 2018 and likely was reviewed prior to that by then County Administrator Mark Taylor. The insinuation Mr. Langridge was making was that County staff was directed to delay the formal presentation of this plan until it was too late to include in the FY2020 budget.
At the April 11th meeting, Chancellor District Supervisor Tim McLaughlin made a concerted effort to earmark budget funds to allow for the plan to move forward in January 2020. The Fire Chief and Sheriff stated that the plan would call for an initial $2.8 million investment in the first year to bring all public safety personnel to market pay rates. Initially Lee Hill District Supervisor Gary Skinner expressed support for Mr. McLaughlin’s plan to earmark FY2020 budget funds, but later changed his mind. Mr. McLaughlin’s motion to earmark partial funding that would have sent a positive message of encouragement to those public safety officials working below market rates was defeated 2-5 – getting support from Supervisors McLaughlin and David Ross (Courtland District).
After the motion was defeated, Mr. McLaughlin proposed that the Board consider the plan in the October/November time frame to allow County Finance Staff to assess the financial details and longer-term commitments of adoption. At that time, Mr. McLaughlin suggested the Board could use part of their Fiscal Stability Reserve ($5 million) to implement the pay plan in January 2020 and hope that economic growth helps to bridge the fiscal gap in the FY2021 budget.
At the end of the budget process, Public Safety received only a verbal commitment to consider a compensation plan that seeks to bring them to market pay and help retention and recruitment. If the Board adopts a policy in the fall of 2019 – waiting probably was the responsible choice rather than making a potentially long-term commitment without enough information.
However, in the interim, we must encourage our leaders to stick to that timeframe and address this growing issue before we lose more public safety employees to neighboring localities. Because each day that passes we continue to ask our public safety officials to serve our community for compensation that is below what the market says their sacrifices and skills are worth.