CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Commission finalized a raise measure for full-time county employees, which will go into effect at the start of the next fiscal year.
The $553,617 plan also includes FICA and retirement match.
Commission President Kent Carper said the measure was already approved earlier this year.
“We managed our budget to allow us to do this by making cuts, trimming costs, arguing and fighting over every thing we got, including our insurance,” he said.
According to Carper, 60 percent of the raises and benefits will go toward the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office.
“If you want to go out and hire deputy sheriffs to get out here at 2-3 o’clock in the morning and risk their lives, you better pay them,” he said.
Carper also said he did not want a prosecuting attorney’s office with new lawyers, adding a pay increase for that office would result in some becoming career attorneys with the county.
“Then we’ll get to the rest of the employees, and they work hard,” he said.
These raises are the first in the county since the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
The commission also approved allocating $300,000 for purchasing new ambulances for the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority and spending more than $18,000 in attorneys’ fees regarding the Crossings Mall bridge bankruptcy and federal cases.
“No public money other than what we spend on lawyers,” Carper said. “We needed to do that.”