The Placer County Board of Supervisors heard an item at its regularly scheduled Feb. 8, 2011 meeting regarding salary adjustments for law enforcement personnel represented by the Deputy Sheriffs Association (DSA) and other public safety personnel not represented by the DSA. In all, about 225 employees are covered, including sheriff’s deputies, sergeants, district attorney’s investigators and welfare fraud investigators.

The Board is required by law to make the adjustments as specified by Measure F, which was approved by Placer County voters in 1977. Each February, public safety management and DSA members employed in the Placer County Sheriff’s Office receive mandatory salary adjustments. Measure F salary adjustments are formula driven. The adjustments are an average of public safety employees in comparable positions in the Nevada County, El Dorado County and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s offices. Because Measure F increases are the result of a voter adopted ballot measure, they cannot be denied, adjusted nor delayed by the Board of Supervisors. From 2010 to 2011, Nevada County actually had the largest percentage raise for their Deputies: 4.82 percent. However, they also pay their deputies the lowest out of the three adjoining counties.

Effective Feb. 12, 2011, salary increases for Placer County public safety employees will be:

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Undersheriff: 2.53 percent;
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Assistant Sheriff: 2.53 percent;
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Captain: 2.82 percent;
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Lieutenant: 2.80 percent;
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Sergeant: 3.79 percent;
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Chief Deputy Coroner: 3.83 percent;
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Deputy Sheriff I: 3.83 percent;
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Deputy Sheriff II: 3.83 percent;
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Investigator: 3.79 percent;
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Supervising Investigator Welfare Fraud: 3.79 percent; and
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Investigator Welfare Fraud: 3.79 percent.

As part of the negotiated Placer County DSA Memorandum of Understanding, the classification of District Attorney Investigator will receive a salary set at 5 percent above the base pay of the Sergeant classification; and the Chief Deputy Coroner will receive a salary set at 7.5 percent increase above the base pay of the Deputy Sheriff II, effective February 12, 2011.

The total cost of base salaries for allocated positions for the remainder of this fiscal year is approximately $334,397 ($899,002 annualized), which the affected departments will be expected to absorb within their current budgets.