This is a released statement by the Madison County Sheriff's Office about comments made by Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler and Madison County Compliance Manager John Thompson:

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On April 1, 2020, the Madison-St. Clair Record published an article which included statements from Chairman Prenzler and Compliance Manager Thompson. As part of the article, Prenzler and Thompson provided statements asserting that the Sheriff’s Office is requesting additional pay for its employees as an incentive for the employees to report to work during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. These are blatantly erroneous statements. Following are the true facts regarding this matter, and not the political rhetoric spouted by Chairman Prenzler and Compliance Manager Thompson.

On March 16, 2020, Madison County Administrator Doug Hulme sent email correspondence to various Madison County Department Heads regarding compensating employees who are not reporting to work. In the email, Administrator Hulme indicated that if an employee is non-essential and is not expected to work from home, he/she will continue to be paid regular wages. In particular, Administrator Hulme indicated that non-essential personnel would receive Paid Time Off (PTO), and that the employees would not be required to utilize sick or vacation leave. Administrator Hulme also went a step further and stated, “Any preapproved leaves while the employee is told not to report to work for these employees should also be changed to the PTO Pay Code.”

In response to Administrator Hulme’s directive that non-essential personnel would continue to be paid regular wages even though he/she was not reporting to work, on March 16, 2020, the Sheriff’s Office began providing compensatory time (“comp time”) to its essential personnel. Essential personnel have a heightened responsibility to report to work, and, in fact, are required to do so. The Sheriff’s Office began providing comp time based on a past practice of providing equal benefits to essential employees. As an example, when non-essential County employees are told not to report to work due to severe weather, such as snow, but are still paid regular wages, the Sheriff’s Office provides its essential personnel with comp time. As such, when non-essential County employees were recently provided the benefit of being allowed to stay home while still being paid regular wages, the Sheriff’s Office began providing comp time to its essential personnel pursuant to past practice.

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The comp time provided to the Sheriff’s Office employees is not wages; rather, it is time off from work. Employees of the Sheriff’s Office have not and will not receive additional earnings on their paycheck as a result of reporting to work during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

During the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, the employees of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office are risking their lives on a daily basis. These employees, like the nurses, doctors, and health care workers, are heroes. Hence, in an effort to ensure that the Sheriff’s Office employees were not penalized for continuing to report to work, they were provided the same benefit as the non-essential employees in the form of comp time.

Further, Compliance Manager Thompson’s statement, “Each time an employee uses comp time, another employee must fill in by working overtime and earning overtime pay” is untrue. The Sheriff’s Office manages comp time requests to ensure manpower is covered at the time a request to use comp time is made; hence, if a comp time request puts the Sheriff’s Office in an overtime situation, the comp day is denied.

That said, as of March 31, 2020, due to the recently enacted federal laws regarding leave, the Sheriff’s Office is no longer matching County-awarded PTO with comp time for its essential personnel. To-date, the Sheriff’s Office has not requested an emergency appropriation to the budget due to the COVID-19.

The first priority of Sheriff Lakin is to keep the citizens of Madison County, as well as first responders, safe. However, the employees of the Sheriff’s Office do not have the option of not reporting to work during this pandemic. Although many County employees are not reporting to work, the Sheriff’s Office is still operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to continue law enforcement services to each and every citizen of Madison County. Deputies are still patrolling, investigating crimes and responding to calls for service. As are the Jail Officers who continue to monitor the pretrial detainees at the Madison County Jail.

It is despicable that during this national crisis, Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler and Madison County Compliance Manager John Thompson are attempting to demonize the Sheriff’s Office because it elected to provide equal benefits to its essential personnel.

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