New Door County Position Requests Total 16 for 2023

Sheriff asks for three patrol deputies and a patrol sergeant

Around half a million dollars in recurring expenses would be added to the 2023 levy if the Door County Board of Supervisors were to approve departmental requests for new positions, as well as reclassifications and added hours for existing employees. 

The board will take a closer look at those requests during a budget workshop scheduled for Sept. 1, 8 am – 1 pm, at the Landmark Resort in Egg Harbor. 

There are 16 new positions under consideration, half of those for creating a new transfer division within Emergency Medical Services (see the related story in this issue). 

All the changes are worth  $1.97 million, and of that, $865,538 would be added to the 2023 tax levy, said Ken Pabich, Door County administrator, during an Aug. 16 joint meeting of the county’s Administrative and Finance committees. Within that levy impact are startup equipment costs totaling $311,341 for the Sheriff’s Office. Because those startup costs are nonrecurring expenses, the levy impact for the total personnel requests would be $554,197.

The new positions are requested by Emergency Medical Services (eight employees), the Sheriff’s Office (four employees), Health and Human Services (two employees) and the Parks Department (two employees). There are additional reclassifications or increased hours for existing employees in some of those departments, as well as in Library Services and the Highway Department.

A draft of the 2023 budget hasn’t been presented yet, but some of the supervisors got a first look at the 2023 personnel requests during the joint committee meeting Aug. 16. 

Sheriff’s Office Request

The county’s second-largest department is asking for an additional patrol sergeant ($117,348) and three patrol deputies ($288,451), as well as startup equipment for the new personnel ($311,341). Unlike some departments, new personnel are not offset by increased revenues.

In early 2020, a staffing analysis and optimization study was done for the Door County Sheriff’s Office, and within the 118-page report was a recommendation to have 28 deputies on 12-hour shifts. 

Sheriff Tammy Sternard said her office has been working with the union on creating this change, but they’ve reached a stalemate. 

“The deputies don’t feel the 12-hour shifts will work for them,” she said. “I’m not going to cram that down their throat. I’d hoped they would have at least tried it.”

She decided to take a different approach, asking for an additional deputy for each of the three zones the sheriff’s office currently has: south, middle and north. Currently, minimum staffing calls for three per zone, but if they get a call for another area, that leaves only one in a zone.

“We need to get to four” patrol deputies per zone, Sternard said. “People keep coming, and that’s wonderful, but from a public-safety perspective, we have to invest in the infrastructure.”

The request for the additional deputies is for the 2023 budget, but she’s already made changes this year.

“This year, we are mandating four people on because we just can’t keep up,” Sternard said. “So all those shortages right now are being covered with overtime.”

Sternard said she knew it was a “big lift,” but she considered it a conservative ask.

“I don’t get to control how many people come here,” she said, “but I do have the responsibility to see they’re covered.”

Supervisor Alexis Heim Peter asked Sternard whether there was any potential to offset expenses with additional revenue.

“We’re not a revenue-generating department,” Sternard said. “We rent beds in our jail to offset, and we did write some grants, but when it comes to grants, we don’t have that high, violent crime – and those grants usually go to those departments.”

“I’m going to support these positions,” said Supervisor Dave Englebert. “They’re needed. The county has grown so much. It’s been years with three zones and three officers.”