‘A triage move’: county delegation approves corrections pay increase

LACONIA — The Belknap County Delegation voted 12-1 to approve a 25% pay increase for county corrections employees at its Thursday meeting. 

“I was pleased the delegation truly took the time to hear us out,” County Corrections Superintendent Adam Cunningham said after the vote. “I can’t say that’s always been the case in the past.”

Cunningham brought the proposed increase to the county commissioners — who backed the move and brought it before the delegation — because the struggle to both retain and attract corrections officers has brought staffing levels to drastic lows. Such shortages endanger both inmates and officers, Cunningham said. 

The corrections department faces a twofold challenge. 

First, Cunningham described, the inflow of applications and viable candidates has been meager. Second, the department is hemorrhaging employees and, with them, their experience. 

“I would say less than a dozen viable people have put in for this position in the last year,” Cunningham said. “In that same time period we’ve lost 11. We started the year one position short and we are currently seven positions short.”

Such gaps put more pressure on the remaining staff. 

“Our situation is getting dire,” Cunningham said. “We are minimum staffed all shifts, all days of the week. We’re denying time off, which is only going to cause more people to leave.”

Corrections is not a line of work, Cunningham emphasized, that can close because its staff has called out. The facility must be staffed nights, weekends and holidays — even when inmate levels are low.

Low pay is at the heart of the retention problem and a major step toward addressing the recruitment one, Cunningham believes. 

Base hourly pay at the jail is currently $20.03. A wage study presented by the commissioners at a previous meeting found that Belknap County had fallen meaningfully below its peers statewide.

“There are [corrections] employees who live in Belknap County who are driving to work in other counties because they offer better pay,” County Administrator Debra Shackett said. “With this, we believe we will make our county much more attractive to those people.”

“This will put [our pay] higher than other counties — which is quite deliberate,” Shackett continued. 

Cunningham predicted a “flush” of new applications because of this edge, especially from other correctional facilities statewide.

The total cost of this increase is $352,521 through the end of 2023. There is already room in the 2022 budget to cover this increase for the remainder of this year, leaving $289,004 committed to next year’s budget. 

Cunningham added that, if the increase brings the department up to full staff — and therefore drastically reduces overtime pay — the county would actually save money.

The increase was in addition to one the delegation approved at its Sept. 1 meeting, as part of approval of a new union contract for county employees broadly.

Several members of the delegation, including Reps. Mike Bordes (R-Laconia), Gregg Hough (R-Laconia), Paul Terry (R-Alton) and Travis O’Hara (R-Belmont), expressed sympathy with Cunningham’s circumstances as well as concern about long-term solutions to an industry-wide problem. 

Rep. Barbara Comtois (R-Barnstead) expressed concern about perpetual wage increases in an employee’s market: if all facilities increase their pay, she said, a bidding war develops.

Comtois, who later voted in favor of the increase, said she was torn between her responsibility to ensure the county has the resources it needs and her fiscal responsibility to taxpayers. 

“I never came here to vote no,” Comtois said after. “But I like to do my due diligence” when it comes to budget commitments.

Rep. Douglas Trottier (R-Belmont), who works in the sheriff's department, noted that the liability risks of staff shortages also pose a financial danger to taxpayers.

“I don’t want to see my taxes increase” either, Trottier said. “But all it’s going to take is one of our COs being injured because we’re being neglectful and not having senior people there.”

As the average experience level of officers decreases and as a short-staffed force is stretched further and further, the liability risk to the county grows.

“One lawsuit is going to cost more than this,” Trottier concluded.

During public comment, officers implored delegates to see the imperative of an increase for the sake of retention. 

“This is my family,” said Melissa Brace, a 16-year employee of the county jail. “And I’m watching my family fall apart because there is no incentive to stay.”

Brace also shared that she has been homeless for two years, unable to afford available housing in the area. She recently received a more lucrative offer from another facility in the state and, depending on the outcome of Thursday’s vote, was seriously considering it. 

The final vote of those present was in favor 12-1, with Rep. Norm Silber (R-Gilford) in lone dissent. Silber did not offer the reasoning behind his vote.

All delegation members present except Reps. Silber, Hough and Jonathan Mackie (R-Meredith) — as well as absent Reps. Glen Aldrich (R-Gilford) and Mike Sylvia (R-Gilford) — will appear on the ticket in November. Vice Chair Rep. Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton), who presided over the meeting, is a nominee for state Senate. 

The all-Republican delegation, in primaries and the general election, face fierce campaigns this fall, especially on county issues. The delegation’s voting record on county employee funds and overall budgeting has proved a lightning rod for critique.  

Reps. Aldrich, Sylvia, Peter Varney (R-Alton) and Chair Harry Bean (R-Gilford) were absent. 

Brace said later that, because the pay increase passed, she intended to turn down the outside offer.

“I do believe that [the corrections employees] actually feel appreciated” as a result of this vote, Cunningham said. “That’s been absent for a long time.”