It’s an issue that many are facing, and Allen County Sheriff Matt Treglia says his department is making it work, but something needs to be done.
The Allen County Commissioners agree. Hiring and retaining employees has become a problem. The sheriff says they are handling it with overtime. He says they are down 6 correction officers, 7 deputies, and a supervisor. The reason appears to be wages. Employees are leaving for jobs that pay more. The sheriff is asking for an equitable wage adjustment for the union employees. Commissioners say they agree and are working on how to provide one.
Allen County Sheriff Matt Treglia explains, “This is all for the public too. This is taxpayer money, and we need to keep our taxpayers safe, and to do that we need to make adjustments to their wages so we can retain people and hire good quality people to this county to do this job.”
Allen County Commissioner Cory Noonan adds, “We just need to really work through the process of the legal side of things to see how we do it. And at the end of the day, we want to ensure that the sheriff has the tools to continue the great work that the sheriff and his staff does.”
Both the sheriff and the commissioners couldn’t comment on the amount that the wage adjustment will be as the numbers are still fluid. Commissioners say they are committed to making this work and believe it is an investment the county must make.
Allen County Commissioner Cory Noonan says, “There’s many layers to this. But we are focused on being with the sheriff and working with the sheriff and moving forward with this and definitely not having any type of delays.”
Sheriff Matt Treglia adds, “Me and my staff and the county commissioners, all 3 of them, there is a problem here and we’re working together to fix it. As we should and it’s going to work out for everybody in the end.”
The wage adjustment would go to corrections officers, deputies, supervisors, cooks, records clerks, dispatchers, and mechanics under union contracts.
