The supervision of the control room at the Routt County Jail may move to civilian hands after the Routt County Board of Commissioners approved a measure proposed by the Routt County Sheriff's Office.

Hiring a civilian for control room operations instead of a trained deputy would save $6,656 annually, according to a report by Chris Hensen, county human resources director. But because of a countywide hiring freeze, the Sheriff's Office is unable to hire anyone new. The Sheriff's Office may request an exemption to the freeze in coming weeks.

Sgt. Mike Baumann said the civilian solution would solve another problem for the department by creating a hiring pool for future deputies.

"When a deputy leaves this department, at best we are given two weeks' notice to make adjustments. It takes, on average, 10 weeks to have a replacement (working) on their own," Baumann wrote in a memo to the commissioners.

He explained that by having the civilians training on site as control room operators, he would have an applicant pool readily available.

"When a detention deputy position opens up for one reason or another, I can say to them, 'Do you want to move forward?'" Baumann said.

Because the civilian control room operators would have no contact with inmates and likely would not leave the control room during the day except for breaks, they would receive most, if not all, training on site.

The civilian job description and pay scale, unanimously approved by the commissioners Tuesday, would pay $34,070, or $16.38 per hour, as the starting salary under the 10 percent pay reduction imposed by the county. The starting deputy salary is $40,726, or $19.58 per hour under the pay reduction.

Hensen said she looked to Moffat and Jefferson counties for examples of how civilians can be used in the jails. Baumann said the use of civilians in those positions is common in larger jails.

"Bigger facilities have civilians because they can afford to do that. At smaller facilities you generally expect whoever you have to do it all," Baumann said.

The Sheriff's Office has four unfilled staffing positions. One is open and not subject to the freeze, and the other three cannot be filled without an exemption from the commissioners.

Commissioners said they appreciated the effort to cut costs in the department and would be willing to listen to requests to exempt other positions from the freeze.

"I appreciate Mike's coming up with this to save money and to help with the turnover issue and the recruitment issue," Commissioner Diane Mitsch Bush said.

- To reach Zach Fridell, call 871-4208

or e-mail zfridell@steamboatpilot.com