Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard talked to the Wood County Commission on Thursday about pay for new hires with law enforcement experience and the continuing problems with the sheriff’s department dealing with mental hygiene calls and transports. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard got approval from the Wood County Commission to match a police officer’s experience to what the department would pay someone with that amount of time in if they want to move over to the sheriff’s department.

Woodyard told the commission the department will have seven positions open in February for deputies.

The department has been offering a $10,000 signing bonus for certified officers who apply, but have had no takers, he said.

They have seven applications for a test that will be given Saturday which will result in two or three that will probably show up. They might be able to hire someone or they might not which is what happened with a recent test the department had given.

“I don’t think this $10,000 bonus is something that is really attracting people, but what I would like to do is our own in-house lateral entry,” Woodyard said. “(With a certified officer) they would come in at a higher pay (than new deputies).”

Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard swore in Jacob Allen as a captain in the Wood County Sheriff’s Department during a ceremony Thursday at the Wood County Courthouse where a number of deputies received promotions to captain, lieutenant and sergeant. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

They would still have to work and gain seniority through the department, Woodyard said.

“If you have someone with six years experience somewhere making the six years pay rate for that department, they aren’t going to come to our department starting out at boot pay which may be less than they are already making,” the sheriff said. “I think we can entice people if we can give them equal or better pay to where they are.

“We may be able to attract them.”

The Vienna Police Department recently did something similar and was able to bring in two officers, Woodyard said.

The department has always started new deputies around the same amount. Woodyard said they would cap the experience scale at 10 years so whatever amount of experience the officer has, the department would start them at what they would pay someone with that experience.

Woodyard said it could make the department a viable choice for someone coming back to the area from elsewhere who has family in the area they are moving back to be near and more.

The commission approved the sheriff to be able to do that.

Commission President Blair Couch said they would look to see what else they might be able to do when they begin the budgeting process for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

In other department business, Woodyard said the department had over 704 mental transports over the last year. Only around 26 percent of those were determined to be mentally incompetent and required to go to a facility.

“Those are growing, growing , growing every day,” he said.

The sheriff wants to increase the civilian staff to take the mental hygiene calls and non-law enforcement duties off of the deputies.

“The deputies need to concentrate on law-enforcement,” he said.

Wood County has a high rate of mental hygiene calls. Woodyard detailed how a department in another county arrested someone, transported them to the local hospital, unarrested them and filed a mental hygiene petition on the individual and the Wood County Sheriff’s Department got stuck with them.

“We get all of the mental hygiene cases from the counties around us,” he said. “Then we have to transport them halfway across the state under a medical mental emergency in the back seat of a car with someone who is not trained to deal with them.”

He wants to see those cases become the jurisdiction of the state Department of Health and Human Resources and be transported by health officials.

Woodyard said he is talking with local state lawmakers to see if the laws can be changed and something can be done.

“They hear what we are saying and understand where we are coming from,” the sheriff said.

He thinks there should be a facility here or close by who can deal with and be able to treat mental hygiene cases.

“The laws are antiquated here,” Woodyard said, adding some of the laws dealing with mental hygiene cases are around 100 years old.

“The mental cases are taking deputies off the road,” he said.

In one day, they had five deputies dealing with five separate mental hygiene cases because the deputy has to stay with them until they are taken to a mental facility.

“Those people are in a medical emergency and need to be transported by a medical facility,” Woodyard said.

Officials said it is simple to get a medical hygiene petition approved by the mental hygiene commissioner and some have been approved on trivial grounds and something needed to be done about that process.

Woodyard wants trained medical personnel to be mental hygiene commissioners.

Woodyard said the county is suppose to be paid by the DHHR for their mental transports. The county is currently owed around $12,000 and Woodyard believes, based on their current rate, they will be owed another $12,000 within the next few months.

In other business, Woodyard swore in a number of deputies who received promotions through the department.

Woodyard swore in Rick George and Jason Allen as captains; Mike Ritchie and Timothy Allen as lieutenants; and Tony Blatt and Jacob Edwards as sergeants.

The sheriff commended all of the deputies and the work they have done in the department.

Friends and family gathered at the courthouse to watch the swearing in ceremonies.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com