Sheriff calls out Columbus councilors: If you want public safety, you need to pay for it

Sheriff Donna Tompkins questioned Columbus Council’s commitment to public safety Tuesday night while wrangling with some councilors over her request for employee pay increases.

The pay reform issue sparked a protracted, intense debate among city officials and some councilors regarding the sustainability of the proposed program and whether Council had the authority to increase the salaries outside of the budgeting process.

Tuesday is the third time that the sheriff has appeared before Council requesting phase two of pay reform for the Sheriff’s Office. Tompkins said the pay increases are crucial for retaining and recruiting deputies and correctional officers, and she considers it an emergency.

“When I stood here two weeks ago, I had 24 openings plus six that I could not fund because the money had to be used to fund Rapid Resolution,” she said Tuesday. “Today we have more openings than that.”

When pressed by Councilor Bruce Huff about how she intended to fund the proposed pay reform in future years, Tompkins made it clear that councilors’ stance on the issue would reveal how serious they are about public safety.

“It’s little bit amazing to me that when the Columbus Police Department came in here for pay reform, nobody said, ‘Oh gee, we might have to take it back next year.’ I mean that’s just a fact, sir,” said Tompkins in exasperation. “And it’s amazing to me that my folks, we can’t even think about how we’re going to work through July going forward.

“... More importantly, sir. I’m just going to have to get real here,” she said. “... I need people to work in the county jail. The safety and security of both my employees and my inmates is paramount in my mind.

“I’ve come to the table more times in the past year than the former administration came to the table in the last four years,” she said. “ I’m going to work, my staff is going to work, and we’re going to make this work. But you’ve got to work with us.”

Continuing on that theme, Tompkins reminded Council that she dropped a lawsuit filed by former Sheriff John Darr, costing the city $3 million, when she entered office in 2017. She said the city auditor found Darr $13 million over budget in a 2017 audit.

“This administration is within budget for the first time in eight years and I’m asking that you as council people, as a mayor, as a city manager, support the people of Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office because we are public safety and we need your help,” she said passionately.

With that, the packed Columbus Chamber erupted into thunderous applause. Those in the audience included Sheriff deputies and animal rights activists who attended the meeting for another agenda item.

“ ... You either stand tonight with us, or you stand against us,” the sheriff continued, emphasizing each word. “You vote for us, or you vote against us, up or down.”

Huff said he wasn’t against increasing the salaries. He just didn’t like the idea of giving raises that may have to be discontinued if funds aren’t available.

“We’re on the same page; I love your people as much as you do,” he said. “... I’m not against anyone here getting a raise. I’m not against voting yes tonight. My point is after I vote yes tonight, and they get money whoever they are, where’s the plan?”

Tompkins said her administration has been proactive about saving the city money since she entered office, and she has the $118,000 in her budget to fund the pay increases for the remainder of FY2018. She just needs council to commit to funding pay reform moving forward. It would be the second phase of pay reform that began this year with the elimination of an employee pay gap policy.

The Sheriff’s Office will be losing a chief in the near future that will make about $100,000 available, Tompkins continued. She said there’s also $372,000 in an OLOST contingency fund that the mayor included in her FY2018 budget, which was never approved by council. If that money was set aside again, she would have no problem funding the pay increases in FY2019.

But Councilor Glenn Davis spent an exorbitant amount of time arguing that a city ordinance prohibits Council from making the pay adjustment outside of the normal budgeting process, which begins in April. And Councilor Gary Allen said he believed the issue should be addressed during that time.

Davis said councilors could move forward if it was an emergency or recommended by the mayor or city manager, and he pressed them several times to make a recommendation. When Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and City Manager Isaiah Hugley didn’t comply, Davis said he took that to mean that they were uncomfortable with the proposal.

Tomlinson said the administration only has the power to recommend a budget once a year according to state law, and the City Manager can approve emergency expenditures and other exceptions to the rule. But councilors have the authority to pass legislation in the interim.

“... Council asked (the Sheriff) to come back because Council wanted to consider appropriating this money for her,” the mayor explained to those in the chamber and viewers on CCG-TV. “And now apparently maybe not because it might be creating a situation where more people come back in the interim, and you can understand why they wouldn’t want that. So what they’re trying to get us to do is to do it for them.

“And that’s the wall between executives and legislators,” she said to Council. “So, y’all have the authority to do it.”

The mayor said if they want her or the City Manager to do it, they will address the issue during the budgeting season.

At first, Councilor Judy Thomas made a motion to amend the local ordinance to allow councilors to move the pay increases forward, which was seconded by Councilor Evelyn “Mimi” Woodson. But in the end, Councilors agreed to vote down that motion.

Councilors told the Sheriff to use the $118,000 for pay bonuses for the remainder of the year, which is action she can take without Council approval. They said they would address the funding necessary to sustain the pay increases during the budgeting process.

Tompkins accepted the recommendation, but she made it clear that she would be back.

“You’re going to see this smiling face again because we are not going away until we get what we need,” she said.

Later, in an interview with local media, the Sheriff said she’s just asking for what’s already been done for the Columbus Police Department.

“I’m trying to get us on a level playing field where we can recruit great people, too,” she said. “Like I’ve said many times, you can hire a hundred Columbus police officers. If you don’t have a deputy sheriff meeting you at the back door of the county jail who can transport that inmate, get them to court, take them to doctors appointments, take them to prison, serve warrants, where are you taking them?

“I have got to have people that work for the Muscogee County Sheriff’s office,” she said. “And they deserve as much, and the exact amount of pay, in my mind.”

This story was originally published February 28, 2018 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Sheriff calls out Columbus councilors: If you want public safety, you need to pay for it."