Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.
Brown County Sheriff's Office, Wisconsin, 2011
This article may not adhere to Ballotpedia's current article guidelines. Please email us at editor@ballotpedia.org to suggest an improvement.
Brown County Sheriff’s Office salaries are a matter of public record under the Wisconsin Open Records Law.
Salaries
The Sheriff's Department FY 2011 budget contained $36,458,535 in expenditures. Of that total, $28,265,342 was dedicated to personnel costs, an increase of 2.96% over the previous fiscal year. The largest driver of the small increase in personnel costs was the addition of a Drug Task Force Diversion officer, along with cost of living wage increases and fringe benefits.[1]
2011 total personnel expenditures were broken down as follows:[1]
| Expenditure type | Total |
| Regular earnings | $16,974,743 |
| Premium overtime | $1,594,469 |
| Fringe benefits | $9,696,130 |
| 2011 total compensation | $28,265,342 |
The department maintains a full-time equivalent of 317.10 employees. Budgeted costs for the ten highest paid department positions include:[1]
| Position | Full time equivalents | Salary (base plus longevity) |
| Sheriff | 1 | $91,000 |
| Chief Deputy | 1 | $82,578 |
| Captain | 5 | $78,125 |
| Lieutenant | 17 | $76,281 |
| Non-Certified Lieutenant | 2 | $72,264 |
| Patrol Officer | 4 | $64,677 |
| Corporal | 7 | $46,499 |
| Juvenile Superintendent | 1 | $48,896 |
| Lance Corporal | 12 | $46,033 |
| Garage Mechanic | 1 | $47,950 |
Benefits
Fringe benefit expenditures totaled $9,696,130 for FY 2011.[1]
Salary records project
In 2011, Sunshine Review chose 152 local governments as the focus of research on public employee salaries. The editors of Sunshine Review selected eight states with relevant political contexts (listed alphabetically):
1. California
2. Florida
3. Illinois
4. Michigan
5. New Jersey
6. Pennsylvania
7. Texas
8. Wisconsin
Within these states, the editors of Sunshine Review focused on the most populous cities, counties and school districts, as well as the emergency services entities within these governments. The purpose of this selection method was to develop articles on governments affecting the most citizens.
The salary information garnered from these states were a combination of existing online resources and state Freedom of Information Act requests sent out to the governments.
A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia said the city of Philadelphia faced challenges owing to the cost of public employee pensions.[2] The report claimed the amount that Philadelphia paid to pension recipients limited the city’s ability to use its budget effectively.
The report said there were more individuals receiving pension benefits—33,907 claimants in 2006—than workers in the city—28,701.[2] The authors recommended three steps towards addressing the problem of high costs in pensions: improved data collection, expanded transparency initiatives, and reductions to the city's overall budget.[2]
Salary schedules can be published as ranges, not as specific compensation figures, and may leave out compensation received through health and retirement benefits, as well as benefits such as commuter allowances and cell phone reimbursements. This project aimed to close the gap and provide a more accurate picture of public employee salaries for the sake of public education and transparency.
External links
Footnotes
