Mooresville fire and police are requesting wage increases since they are losing personnel to nearby departments

Mooresville, Indiana – The Mooresville Police and Fire departments have experienced a staffing deficit, which their respective chiefs attribute to employees leaving for departments with higher pay.

“What happens is we get people that hire on. We spend about $10,000 a person and then when they’re not making enough money and they see that another agency that’s within 10 minutes and is making $70,000 a year then we lose them,” Police Chief Kerry Buckner said.

The base wage in his department, according to Buckner, is just less than $58,000, far less than the $72,000 or $70,000 in neighboring Danville or Martinsville. Even the police department of the Mooresville school system starts at $65,700.

The situation is similar at the fire department, where the base salary is $56,450 as opposed to $72,500 in Martinsville or $78,000 in White River Township.

Buckner was compelled to work with Matt Dalton, the fire chief, to approach the town council about salary increases.

“I need help,” Buckner said at Tuesday night’s meeting. “I need you guys to help me get money or come up with some strategies to get a pay raise.”

Buckner informed the council that despite losing five officers, his department managed to function. But it’s not sustainable, he said.

“IMPD, where I came from, they are 500 to 600 officers short. Which is a lot of officers,” Buckner said. “When you have a lot of people it’s not so bad but when you have 22 officers losing 5 is a big deal.”

Because of staffing issues, Buckner has had to work some shifts with the bare minimum of personnel, which has hindered the fire department’s ability to respond to some fires promptly as they have to wait for support fire services to arrive.

“Things are more expensive, just like every year,” Buckner said. “You have to keep up with the cost of living.”

A minimum 10% salary increase, as requested by Buckner and Dalton, would cost the police department $130,881.95 and the fire department $88,171.29.

It appeared that the municipal council was in favor of salary increases. The bigger obstacle is determining where the funding should originate from.

The budget sessions are slated to start next week and will cover those topics.