The Union County Sheriff’s Office will be awarded money from the state for retaining staff since the pandemic.
Sheriff Jamie Patton told the county commissioners Wednesday that members of his staff were among the more than 10,000 law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel in Ohio that qualified for state retention incentives as part of the Ohio First Responder Recruitment, Retention, and Resilience Program. The program was created to address first responder burnout caused by “understaffing and overall job stress,” according to a release from Gov. Mike DeWine’s office.
Patton said the county received just over $200,000 in funding from the state’s approximately $35 million in grant money.
“In June of 2022, we applied for that grant, that was the deadline, and it was up to 10% of the base salary of each individual officer,” he said, noting that his office received the award money but not at that percentage. “It was not the 10% of the base salary because they had so many. We were awarded, for Union County, for 53 officers, which incorporated sworn and dispatchers. That’s a total of 53 for $212,000.”
He said at the time of applying, the grant specified that officers eligible to receive that money had to be on the agency roster during the pandemic.
“If they had since left and are no longer working here, they don’t get it,” Patton added.
The office hasn’t yet received the money, Patton said, but it will come after paperwork is submitted and has to be distributed within 30 days.
He added the amount ends up being about $4,000 per person, done as a one-time check.
He said he’s appreciative of the recognition, as working through COVID was particularly difficult for first responders.
“We couldn’t work from home, we couldn’t change our operations, we still had to work and respond and go in the home when people had COVID,” he said. “So we thank the governor and we appreciate the legislature that supported that for EMS, fire, law enforcement during those difficult times.”
The program was funded as part of the $250 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
Other Union County agencies also receiving money included $61,023 to the Allen Township Fire Department, $145,250 to the Marysville Police and Fire departments and $92,000 to the Jerome Township Fire Department.
Despite the ongoing staffing issues, Patton said his office has managed to keep up on services and anticipates a growing need. At the Wednesday meeting, the commissioners also approved two agreements for school resource officers in Jerome Township, one for Eversole Run Middle School and one for Depp Elementary, both part of Dublin City Schools but located in the county.
He said the more Dublin expands west, the more his office will likely have to be involved.
“When the schools were being built, we had early on discussions with the schools because Dublin consistently have had law enforcement in every Dublin city school building, even the ones that sit in Columbus’ jurisdiction, Delaware County’s jurisdiction and now, Union County’s jurisdiction. Dublin Jerome sits in Union County, but it’s in the incorporated area of Dublin, so Dublin officers handle that,” Patton said. “The new high school that gets built at Mitchell-Dewitt and Industrial Parkway in 2026-2027 like they anticipate, then we’ll probably have a law enforcement deputy in that school down the road. That’s in the forecast.”
He said, overall, staffing numbers are still down. The sheriff’s office has five open sworn positions, one on the civilian side in the dispatch division.
“We did have two start the academy this past Monday,” he said. “We have two pending lateral transfers from other agencies and those folks are in background right now.”
Additionally, he said there are also two cadet positions that are being filed.
“We have 11 open positions that we don’t have on the street, so it’s quite a bit,” Patton added. “It’s exciting that we’re getting folks into the academy, but they won’t available for about eight or nine months – five or six months at the academy and then four months or three months of coaching. So it’s very challenging in that sense, but we’re getting through it.”