{"id":294520,"date":"2026-06-03T15:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294520\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:31:07","slug":"st-johns-county-sheriff-seeks-budget-increase-to-raise-deputies-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294520\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Johns County sheriff seeks budget increase to raise deputies’ pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick<\/a> presented his proposed $147 million budget to the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, noting that 98.7% of the increase is tied to pay raises for deputies and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of yesterday, there are 1,057 members of the St. Johns County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a>,\u201d the sheriff said, presenting the budget on behalf of the full agency.<\/p>\n

Personnel services make up 80% of the total budget at $115 million. Salary and benefits account for 79% of overall spending \u2014 a figure the sheriff said reflects where the bulk of public safety investment goes each year.<\/p>\n

The proposal calls for a $3,000 base pay increase plus step raises for sergeants and below, pushing starting deputy pay from $60,500 to $63,500. Civilian employees would receive a $1,000 base increase plus step raises.<\/p>\n

The overall increase for sworn deputies below the sergeant\u2019s rank is proposed at 5.8%, while nonsworn personnel would see a 3.8% to 7% increase.<\/p>\n

Competing with Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n

The sheriff raised a pointed concern about the agency\u2019s ability to compete for talent with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, which is transitioning to the Florida Retirement System<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of all the agencies in the state of Florida, which is 67 sheriff\u2019s offices, there is only one agency that is not on the Florida Retirement System plan, which of course is the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office,\u201d the sheriff explained.<\/p>\n

The portability of retirement benefits has long been a competitive advantage for St. Johns County, allowing deputies to carry their retirement benefits to any of the other 66 sheriff\u2019s offices in the state \u2014 or to agencies like the Florida Highway Patrol or Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission \u2014 without losing a single day of accrued retirement.<\/p>\n

Once Jacksonville joins the Florida Retirement System, that advantage disappears. The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office will offer a starting salary of $71,828, with pay approaching $90,000 at the five-year mark \u2014 a threshold the sheriff acknowledged St. Johns County cannot currently match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in a competition with Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, but I can tell you from my brothers and sisters, they\u2019ll tell you that everybody wants to go to the bigger machine,\u201d the sheriff said.<\/p>\n

School safety: A growing cost<\/p>\n

One of the most detailed sections of the presentation focused on school safety \u2014 a line item the sheriff broke out separately for the first time this year.<\/p>\n

With 46 public schools currently operating and two new campuses opening \u2014 one in Silverleaf and one in Nocatee \u2014 the Youth Resource Deputy Program carries a total budget of $9.6 million, composed entirely of personnel costs and benefits with no equipment funding included.<\/p>\n

The St. Johns County School District reimburses the Sheriff\u2019s Office $7.3 million of that cost, covering hour-for-hour pay for deputies assigned to schools during the academic year. That reimbursement equals 69.2% of the program\u2019s total cost.<\/p>\n

The remaining gap is absorbed by the county. When school is not in session, those deputies return to general patrol and augment other divisions, including criminal investigations and a newly launched juvenile diversion program.<\/p>\n

The school crossing guard program adds another $2.2 million to the budget. Guards currently work 28 schools, staffing 78 posts and helping about 26,000 children travel to and from school each day. The four new positions requested this year \u2014 along with eight new crossing guards and two additional public service assistants \u2014 are tied directly to the opening of the two new schools.<\/p>\n

The sheriff also noted that state funds may exist to offset crossing guard costs and said the agency is working with County Administrator Joy Andrews and school Superintendent Brennan Asplen to track down those dollars.<\/p>\n

Costs for operations and jail<\/p>\n

Operating expenses<\/a> have been squeezed by inflation, particularly in fleet costs. The base price for a patrol vehicle has risen from roughly $56,000 5\u00bd years ago to about $88,000 today.<\/p>\n

Capital improvement costs dropped by just under $9,000 this year, a result the sheriff credited to aggressive grant-seeking at the federal, state and local levels. Fleet debt currently stands at $6.1 million, with the agency using surplus funds to pay down loans rather than return money to the county at year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

The jail, overseen by Director Jason Caban, carries a $34.9 million budget. The average daily inmate population is 414 \u2014 down 20 to 30 inmates per year \u2014 a trend the sheriff attributed to investments in reentry programming, homeless reunification, job placement and education. The jail set a record last year with 25 GED completions.<\/p>\n

Total annual bookings stand at 7,107. The E911 center, funded separately through a $0.40 per-line charge on landlines and cellphones, adds $2.1 million to the overall budget figure of $149 million but carries no direct cost to county general revenue.<\/p>\n

Calls for service reached 289,000 through the computer-aided dispatch system, with 101,911 calls to the 911 center. Total inbound and outbound call volume at the dispatch center reached about 360,000.<\/p>\n

The agency recently added a new air unit to its fleet, returning a Bell helicopter that had been on loan through the federal 1033 program. The unit is used primarily to support water rescue operations and provide real-time intelligence to fire, rescue and patrol units.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s recommended budget will be submitted in July and once approved, take effect in October.<\/p>\n

This story was produced by News4Jax<\/a>, a Jacksonville Today news partner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick presented his proposed $147 million budget to the St. Johns County Board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-294520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}