Some additional details about the cost to have the Sheriff take over policing.
But Sheriff Marty Kelly said he has trouble filling his own positions. He said he currently has five qualified applicants for the county’s four job openings
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GOODHUE, Minn. — The City of Goodhue and the Goodhue County Sheriff's Office reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday for police coverage for the city from the county through 2023.
Sheriff Marty Kelly said the county's coverage for the city will almost certainly extend well into 2024 and possibly beyond.
"I’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop since I started," he said, referring to the resignations that led to the collapse of Goodhue's police department.
On Monday, the Goodhue City Council accepted the resignations of Police Chief Josh Smith and full-time Officer Anthony Brecht. Five part-time officers also resigned,
leaving Goodhue without any police officers .
Smith said officer pay and recruitment were the main reasons behind his leaving.
Kelly said he pays new patrol deputies $32.51 per hour. That number, he said, is up $5 an hour after the county conducted a comparable pay study to see how county employees were paid compared to workers in similar positions in other counties.
"We were low," he said. "They were at $22 an hour. That's $10 too low."
The tentative agreement reached between the county and the city is pending the City Council's vote on Aug. 23. At that point, the city will need to decide how many hours of police coverage it wants each week from the county.
That coverage comes at a rate of $55.83 per hour, which covers not only the salary of the deputy but all other costs with outfitting an officer, such as the cost of a vehicle, computer, training, uniforms, and other compensation such as health insurance and employee benefits.
"They get patrol for that price," Kelly said. "It costs a lot more than that to outfit a deputy."
Kelly said the county expects to take over police duties in Goodhue on Aug. 24. The county also provides police patrol coverage in Pine Island and Wanamingo in Goodhue County.
On Monday, City Council members Chris Schmit and Patrice O'Reilly indicated they wanted to build the city's police department back from scratch, hiring a new chief and eventually new officers.
That, Kelly said, is not a realistic goal in the current climate for law enforcement jobs.
"Realistically, if you do want to hire a chief, it'll take six to eight months before you identify anyone, get them trained and on board," he said. "They need to step up their pay if they’re going to get applicants."
Kelly said he has trouble filling his own positions. He currently has four job openings for patrol deputies and five qualified applicants. Kelly said he'd be happy if he got two new hires out of that batch once the interview process is completed and applicants — who likely have also applied at other agencies — make their decisions.
Across Minnesota, he said, enrollment in criminal justice and law enforcement programs at colleges is down 50% from before 2020 and the riots in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd.
"New kids coming out of school — and there are few of them — get to pick where they want to work," he said.
And while the pool of new licensed peace officers is down, the rate of retirement among current officers continues unabated.
"We are robbing Peter to pay Paul," Kelly said. "Two of the last hires came from (agencies in the Twin Cities). We're not getting the fresh kids out of college."
In the meantime, Kelly said arranging for deputies to patrol another city in Goodhue County is putting additional stress on his agency.
"Our staff is stressed already," the sheriff said. "We've had a few people leave this year. We’re forcing people to work overtime. They hate it. I hate it. But we have to have the coverage."
Part of the problem is the turnover he's had in 2023. Kelly said by the end of the year, the Sheriff's Office will have 12 new patrol deputies. But there's a logjam of new deputies waiting to be trained before they can be put out on the streets.
"I’m hiring them as fast as I can, putting them over in bailiff, and training them and getting them out on the road," he said.
Kelly said he hopes Goodhue is the only city in the county that will need to contract for coverage with the county. Because right now, the shortage of law enforcement officers is impacting other towns as well.
"Cannon Falls is struggling with staffing," he added.
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