Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and the Knox County Commission approved a work release reduction plan aka a golden parachute exit on Monday for more than 900 Knox County employees that includes hundreds of Knox County Sheriff’s Department Officers.
Spangler visiting with patrons at a campaign event.
With the reality that the pay raises that the KCSO Officers believed they were going to achieve with the election of Sheriff Tom “Spanky” Spangler is NOT going to be likely in this budget year. Word is with the work reduction plan there will be a Mass exodus from the Knox County Sheriffs Office.
Here is the likely scenario, to be eligible an officers age and years of service MUST equal 70. So when an employee was hired at 21 years of age and has 25 years of service, that equals 71 (because they are now 46 years of age and 25 years of service).
So they take the BIG OLE check straight to the bank.
Then they go to the Knoxville Police Department for a lateral hire. Check out how financial rewarding that is from the KPD Facebook page.
Remember, we have 9 counties around Knox County with many city, town or municipal police agencies and all the security positions at the federal reservation in Oak Ridge, TN that hire consistently at higher starting wages.
So, the KCSO Officers achieve the financial windfall they believed Knox County was going to provide but have not. When in reality the taxpayers are the ones that get hosed and the Officers get what they desired and likely deserved.
So years of dedicated Knox County service with sub par compensation is rewarded by a new job at a new agency.
Sadly, instead of investing dollars into salary enhancements, Knox County chose to pay out exit bonuses. When Knox County should have taken those dollars and increased Officers pay and not lost their experience and training.
