County Commission Meeting Regarding Detention Staff Pay

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Muskingum County Juvenile Detention Center met with the Muskingum County Commissioners today discussing compensation of Detention staff.

Their main concerns to the Commissioners was the salary structure in which staff was underpaid in comparison to employees in other city and county offices. In the past year, the Detention Department has lost twenty three employees, which when fully staffed, consists of forty one total employees.

“Our detention staff salaries have been historically low, and it’s cost us in recent months to have trouble retaining and hiring new employees. We’ve had on a full time staff of forty one people, we’ve had 23 people leave us within the last year,” said Director of Court Services, Robert Smith.

The Department’s request is an increase in the funding for wages to create an efficient operation of the detention center. Smith said that the Commissioners seemed attentive and willing to solve to the issue.

“We’ve talked to them about this before, but it hasn’t had quite the same urgency because we haven’t had the personnel turnover. I think they share our concerns, and they seem very willing to work with us to gain some parody in our salaries,” he said.

Muskingum County Commissioners asked the Detention Department to resubmit a budget of payroll for the Detention staff.