Sanilac Sheriff Garry Biniecki
The Sanilac County Board of Commissioners have given approval of a pay increase for the Sheriff and Undersheriff, following action taken Tuesday afternoon. Board Chairman Dan Dean, who is also on the personnel committee, said the increases came as a result of lengthy discussion about the Federal bed rental program and the Undersheriff’s payscale.
Commissioners agreed to allow a $15,000 annual stipend to to Sheriff Garry Biniecki for his work with the $3 million dollar bed rental program and a return to Command pay for Undersheriff Brad Roff, plus a percentage increase to bring him up where he should be for wages.
Commissioners also added the stipulation that if the county ever goes away from the Federal bed rental program, the Sheriff’s stipend would also end.
The Sanilac County Board of Commissioners gave approval of spending $34,000 to upgrade the radio consoles at Central Dispatch to better communicate with deputies. Director Dawn Cubitt said with the upgrades, Dispatch will be better able to talk with deputies when their patrol units leave the county and are working on other county’s frequencies that operate 800mgh radio systems.
In other Commissioner news, board members gave their verbal approval to move a uniformed deputy to the Detective Bureau, once qualifying testing is done. So far, five employees have tested for the promotion and sheriff department officials expect to announce the change in coming weeks.
The $1,700 of additional expense with the move will be absorbed by the sheriff department budget. Discussion on a new hire of a deputy to replace the promoted deputy was delayed until further information was available.
Sanilac County Drug Task Force Director James Johnson gave his annual report to the Sanilac County Board of Commissioners Tuesday afternoon, noting an increase in activity from previous years, Johnson said the DTF had received 471 tips of drug activity and made 43 undercover drug buys in the county.
DTF agents performed 49 searches, made 111 arrests and had 135 felony charges processed. Of more concern was the number of meth lab investigations within the county that were dismantled. Five of the eight investigations countywide were in the Marlette area.
DTF agents were involved in 13 overdose cases in Sanilac County, including six deaths, five involving heroin.
