Employees at the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office should be getting a $6,000 raise next month, after St. Lucie County commissioners approved a larger budget for the sheriff in the next fiscal year’s budget.
County commissioners Thursday approved the next budget, which includes $5 million more for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
With that added money, in part, Sheriff Keith Pearson promised he’d be able to give the majority of civilian and sworn employees $6,000 raises. In Thursday’s budget hearing, Pearson said that amounts to a more than 18% raise for the lowest paid civilians. The only employees who would not see a raise, he said, were those who already maxed out the pay for their position.
“Since day one, our greatest asset is our employees,” Pearson told commissioners.
WPTV Investigates
St. Lucie Co. sheriff wants raises across the board, including for himself
Jamie Ostroff
In previous budget negotiations under Sheriff Ken Mascara, Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said additional money was given to the sheriff’s office with the impression it would help with raises, but ended up not being used for raises.