Leelanau Sheriff Talks Pay, Housing In The Face of Staffing Grind

Hire, hire, hire.

That’s the plan over at the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office, where a handful of recent retirements and the potential for several more has Sheriff Mike Borkovich looking to fill boots with good people.

Two new deputies started this week and another one will start next month, Borkovich says, and a few more are in the academy and will be ready to join the office toward the end of the year. But he’s still not anticipating much breathing room going forward.

“When these last two go through the academy and get out in December, we’ll be back at full staff, but we have eight other people who could pull the plug as soon as tomorrow,” he tells The Ticker. “We anticipate maybe three going by the end of this year, and then we’ll be deficit hiring again.”

The LCSO at full staff has 21 officers in the road patrol division and 17 in the corrections (jail) divsion, Borkovich says, plus adminstrative and support staff. 

Borkovich is pleased with his two newest hires. Deputy Robery Neumann, 61, comes to Leelanau after serving for almost 10 years as the chief of police for the University of Michigan.

“He’s very talented; has a lot of background, training and experience. We’re really looking forward to having him join us,” Borkovich says. “And it’s smart on his part too, to go from a very high-stress, big job like that into a more comfortable position where he doesn’t have to make big budgetary decisions or hire and fire anyone. He can just focus on police work, which he enjoys.”

The second new hire is Deputy Abby Sterly, 22, who comes to the department after a stint at the Wexford County Sheriff's Office as a corrections deputy.

“She worked the jail side of things and she wanted to get on the road, so we picked her up,” he said. “She’s starting her career at a very young age, and hopefully she’ll start and finish here.”

The next to come on board in a few weeks will be Craig Flees, who is completing NMC’s police academy. He was already hired by the department before he even went into the academy, a move designed to get more people into law enforcement by covering their training costs.

“(The Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards) started a program couple years ago where they would pay up to $24,000 of a new recruit's training because no one was going into law enforcement.” Borkovich says. “Basically, we sponsor them through, and then they owe us four years of working here when they're done.”

State and federal police agencies have always had paid academies, Borkovich said. He’s glad to see the practice hit county and city departments.

“It’s been really unfair to people who work at local PDs or sheriff’s offices. These people…had to pay for their own police academy, buy their own equipment, use their own gas and food,” Borkovich says. “So it's a really good thing, this program that MCOLES has done, and I hope they continue it.”

Recently retired staffers include Sgt. Greg Hornkohl, Detective Mike Bankey and Cpl. John Donohue. Cpl. Eric Mulvaine also retired from the corrections division.

Borkovich points to low pay and an increasingly dire housing situation as big barriers to being able to hire at a consistent clip in the future. He’s hopeful the county board of commissioners will support a requested increase in pay.

“We really, really need to catch up on wages for two reasons. One is that we’re behind on comps in the area with state police, with the DNR, with the National Park Service, even with the tribal police,” he says. “And then number two, we have a very, very, very expensive place to live up here. I’m getting people who want to live here, but they can’t afford to even rent here.”

Staffing is likely to impact the sherriff’s office coverage patterns this year, Borkovich says. Even as new deputies are hired, they are tied to another officer for a while as they train and can’t operate independently. This means less bodies available, and the low hanging fruit when it comes to dialing back on coverage is special events.  

“As far as how many people we send to the Polka Fest, how many people to each fireworks, it’s a (tough decision),” Borkovich says. “We’re just not going to be able to staff some of these events like we’ve done in the past.”

Photo: Borkovich swears Sterly and Neumann in.