MANSFIELD — Richland County commissioners on Tuesday approved a new three-year contract with the Fraternal Order of Police union representing 27 sheriff’s deputies.
The pact, which takes effect Jan. 1, includes annual pay increases of 5 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent in 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Sheriff Steve Sheldon said the successful negotiation led to the new deal being signed before it expired, a first in his 17 years in office. The sheriff attended the Tuesday meeting along with county Human Resources Director Kelly Christiansen.
“We are absolutely very happy with the contract,” Sheldon said. “We have high quality staff members and this contract will help in our recruitment efforts to bring in top candidates.
“It’s not necessarily about the quantity of candidates. It’s more about the quality.”
Christiansen called it a “mature contract” that didn’t require many changes, other then economic. The deputies were organized under the Fraternal Order of Police in 1988.
“We appreciate that the deputies cooperated and got this over with,” Commissioner Darrell Banks said.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners approved a contract for $267,000 with the Studer-Obringer Construction Co. Inc. from New Washington for improvements at The Domestic Violence Shelter in Mansfield.
Studer-Obringer had submitted the lowest bid for the project, which will be funded by a $280,000 CARES Act Community Development Block Grant funds.
The DV Shelter recently acquired an adjoining property and will use the funds to link the buildings and renovate the new space, increasing its capacity by 70 percent, officials have said.
Mansfield architect Dan Seckel, who recommended the bid to commissioners on Tuesday, said he estimated the work at $265,000.
“Studer-Obringer is a construction company that has been in business for more than 50 years. I have done 20 to 25 projects with them and they have impeccable credentials,” Seckel said.
Seckel, who said The DV Shelter had opted not to pursue additional work that had been bid at the same time, said he thinks construction work could begin in January and will take around five months to complete.
