LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County Sheriff Kelly Rowe is urging county commissioners to reconsider adopting another no-new-revenue tax rate before October, saying his office has reached a level he described as “critical mass.”
Rowe raised those concerns during one of the initial budget workshops with the Commissioner’s Court in June, citing staffing shortages, a widening pay gap with other agencies, and a detention center at risk of losing compliance with state jail standards.
Pay gap driving deputies to other agencies
Rowe said his top priority this budget cycle is salaries, as the office struggles to retain experienced deputies and recruit new ones.
“The key thing here is we’ve got to stem this bleeding of experienced veteran people over to other agencies,” Rowe said. “The ability that they have created to laterally transfer people over much higher pay ranges is a killer.”…