STANTON — Would Montcalm County voters rather see law enforcement millage money help pay for a variety of law enforcement-related services, or sit in a bank and wait for the tide to turn amid a hiring drought?
That’s the question the Montcalm County Board of Commissioners and Sheriff Mike Williams are once again doing battle over during 2023-2024 fiscal year budget talks.
The sheriff has requested a 14% pay raise for all Command Officers Association of Michigan (COAM) and Police Officers Association of Michigan (POAM) union officers to make the wage more competitive and hopefully to fill vacant positions.
The sheriff’s office currently has 10 vacant deputy positions, most recently losing four officers to the Fremont Police Department, the Greenville Department of Public Safety and the Michigan State Police. Deputies are also leaving to work in the private sector, including Montcalm County Commissioner Charlie Mahar of Eureka Township, who resigned as a sheriff’s deputy to work as a real estate broker last year.
“We’re struggling to find qualified candidates to fill those positions and we’re struggling with retention as well,” Williams told commissioners at last Wednesday’s budget meeting. “We’re competing with not just other agencies but the private sector as well, and we’re losing.”
Williams said his 14% request is based on what the city of Greenville pays its police officers.
Although Montcalm County voters approved a five-year law enforcement millage in 2020 to...
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