Brown County Chief Deputy Sheriff Bobby Duvall completed the Sheriff’s annual budget proposal, and the bottom line comes to $4,283,581 to run the Brown County Sheriff’s office and the county jail from October of this year thru September of 2015.

Sheriff Bobby Grubbs is requesting a 7% across-the-board base-pay salary increase for his enforcement division employees. In the budget, the Sheriff is asking for $166,278 for courthouse security, $2.14 million for the jail, and $1.977 million for the Sheriff’s office.

Chief Deputy Bobby Duvall says the largest problem facing the Sheriff’s office is personnel turnover. He blames the turnover on the pay not being commensurate with the job requirements. He says about 75% of the employees who leave, do so due to better pay and less responsibility elsewhere. Duvall says in the last 3 years, they’ve gone from an average turnover of 15 jailers a year to 24 due to the $24,000 base pay.

Although Duvall didn’t provide the numbers, he said that Erath County is a smaller jail with less inmate capacity, and yet their jailers are paid “significantly” more.

In his proposed budget, the Sheriff is asking for an annual jailer’s base-pay increase from $24,000 to $27,000, and to $30,000 after the first year on the job.

“Brown County must strengthen its ability to attract and retain employees of high standards in order to meet the increasing enforcement and corrections needs of our citizens,” said Sheriff Bobby Grubbs.