Two conflicting laws will result in a larger-than-expected raise for Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers next year.
The Bartholomew County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to raise Myers’ salary from $117,731 this year to $120,675 in 2019, a 2.5 percent increase.
Since taking office in early 2015, Myers’ salary has been based on a four-year contract that keeps his wages at a level that’s at least 80 percent of what county prosecutor Bill Nash makes.
But it now appears the sheriff will be negotiating a contract with the county annually.
The reason is that Indiana prosecutors such as Nash have received an average 2.1 percent annual raise for the past four years, said Columbus attorney Jeff Beck, who represents Myers.
Because Nash’s salary is paid by the state of Indiana, his raise goes into effect at the beginning of the state’s fiscal calendar, which is July 1. In contrast, Myers’ wages and benefits are paid by the county, which follows the calendar year for all fiscal matters. That’s where the conflict come in.
Indiana law prohibits an elected county official’s salary from being changed at any time except the beginning of the calendar year, county auditor Barb Hackman said. But if the sheriff’s salary falls below 80 percent of the prosecutor’s wages on July 1, another state regulation is broken, Beck said.
The one-year contract with Myers is an attempt to address the two conflicting statutes, Beck said.
However, the contract does state that if Myers’ salary drops lower than 80 percent of the prosecutor’s wages next summer, the county would still have to immediately increase his pay, Hackman said.
When council member Matt Miller noted Myers was asking for more than the 2.1 percent average increase for prosecutors over the past four years, Beck responded the request is lower than the 3.1 percent raise approved in 2016.
The sheriff’s attorney then reminded the council that Myers could actually make more money if he didn’t sign a contract.
In Indiana, sheriffs have the option to take a lower salary and supplement their income with a cut of unpaid taxes collected by tax warrants, Beck said.
If Myers had chosen that option, he could be pocketing about $10,000 annually in additional revenue, Beck said.
On top of that, sheriffs can also make money by keeping the cost of inmate meals lower than the amount of money provided by the state, and pocketing the difference, council attorney Chris Monroe said.
While that may be legal, the prohibition-era practice has resulted in numerous lawsuits being filed against sheriffs across the nation, according to news reports.
The threat of litigation, combined with media reports about prisoners suffering from food-related illnesses or malnutrition, has nearly ended the practice in Indiana, news accounts state.
Although council members Miller and Jorge Morales extensively questioned Beck and Myers about the one-year contract, retiring councilman Chris Ogle said the salary increase was not worth “beating a dead horse” with extensive debate. The one-year contract for Myers was then approved unanimously.
Council president and former two-term sheriff Mark Gorbett said he felt the contract amount, which was also approved by the Bartholomew County Commissioners on Monday, was reasonable.
But commissioners chairman Larry Kleinhenz expressed mixed emotions on the subject. He recalls that when he was first elected to public office in the early 1990s, the base salary for a Bartholomew County sheriff was $29,500.
Money pocketed at that time by a sheriff by means other than wages were not used to calculate retirement pensions, which is based off a former sheriff’s highest salary.
Although there is now more transparency regarding a sheriff’s earnings, the amount of taxpayer dollars being invested into the sheriff’s wages and benefits — especially long-term pensions — have risen dramatically over the past 30 years, Kleinhenz said.
“It seems to me the taxpayers have been the ones who have lost,” Kleinhenz said.
But Gorbett said there are still unresolved matters regarding Myers’ pension that will be addressed by the council at a later date.
