PENDER COUNTY — Amidst rapid growth, Pender County faces challenges in attracting and retaining its workforce, impacting key services from public safety to tax administration. Addressing gaps in the workforce is a focal point in county budget talks for the upcoming fiscal year.
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There have been four meetings among county commissioners and department heads to talk about the Pender County FY 2025-2026 budget, but the final document has yet to be put forth. It’s expected mid-June, but the conversation so far has centered on attracting and retaining qualified candidates for vacant positions like sheriff’s deputies, tax administrators and social workers.
“It’s all about taking care of people so they can take care of us,” Commissioner Brent Springer told Port City Daily. “You know, if they’re not making us look good, what are we doing to fail them? What can we do to improve the culture or a better work environment?”
Commissioners unanimously enacted a hiring and spending freeze on April 22, lasting until the FY 2025-2026 budget is installed on July 1. Commissioner Jimmy Tate made the motion but clarified the measure does not freeze hiring for currently vacant positions — only prevents the creation of any new roles within the county, aiming to manage growth responsibly without immediately expanding the county’s workforce footprint.
Pender County — North Carolina’s second-fastest growing county, with a population that surged by approximately 16.4% since April 2020 — currently lists 22 open positions on its website. Departments with the most urgent needs include social services, the county jail, and the county manager’s office, reporting nine vacancies cumulatively. Three are for director or manager positions in each office. It also includes the county manager, fired in mid-April with commissioners citing a need for more experienced leadership. Finance director Meg Blue is acting as interim manager.
Separately, the Pender County Sheriff’s Office reports 18 total vacancies within its ranks, primarily for roles like detention officers, 911 operators, and deputy sheriffs. Port City Daily reached out to Pender County twice for a specific employee turnover rate, but an answer was not received by press.
According to Burton, Pender County Sheriff’s Office is at the forefront of the county’s staffing crisis, facing significant challenges with hiring detention officers and sheriff’s patrol deputies. Two of the 18 vacancies are for deputy patrol positions; during a May 1 budget workshop, Sheriff Alan Cutler requested an additional eight patrol deputy positions.
Cutler added current shifts often have only six deputies, including a sergeant, leading to a ratio of roughly one deputy for every 10,000 Pender citizens. The FBI lists a national average for county agencies of about 2.5 officers for every 1,000 citizens.
“That’s scary,” Chair Randy Burton said of the 1-to-10,000 ratio. “The people at home right now watching this need to know they are woefully underserved.”
Failing to fill these critical roles has consequences, leading to substantial overtime costs for the county. Over the course of FY 2024-25, PCSO accumulated $800,510 in total overtime costs; they expect to hit $800,000 again for FY 2025-26. Cutler explained the bulk of overtime hours are accumulated by patrol deputies who must cover shifts as a result of vacancies. Relying on overtime forces existing staff into mandatory extended shifts, which can lead to potential burnout and make the department less attractive to potential recruits.
Burton asked Cutler for the average cost of a new sheriff’s deputy, covering salary, uniforms, and a vehicle. It typically falls around $70,000.
“Let’s just say it was $100,000, this is just a ballpark,” Burton replied. “That’s eight positions a year, right there you’re paying in overtime.”
Commissioner Tate asked what the county could do to help. Cutler clarified the difficulty isn’t just approving positions, but obtaining and holding onto capable employees who often leave for roles in other counties.
“I think that’s the problem,” Tate said. “We don’t want to be a training ground for deputies to come here and leave, get training and go to New Hanover County.”
Currently, starting salaries for deputy sheriffs are comparable between Pender and New Hanover counties; Pender offers $48,211 annually, while New Hanover provides $46,360 annually, plus a $2,000 sign-on bonus. Adjacent Onslow County outpaces both, offering starting deputies $54,849 annually, nearly $6,000 more than its neighbors.
“With deputy sheriffs, you know, you raise the starting salary for deputy sheriffs to try to keep and retain younger deputies and then the county beside you raises it more,” Burton said. “It’s sort of like a never ending battle that you’re always trying to catch up and stay competitive with your fellow counties.”
Cutler expressed concern with hiring and training additional staff for the new detention facility set to open in fall 2026. He explained it takes up to a year to train the officers, who must also complete a mandatory five-year certification process. There are currently four vacancies for detention officers.
“I don’t want nobody to be brutally injured because of lack of training — or you know, whatever goes on in jail,” Springer said.
Outside of the sheriff’s office, the tax department is also grappling with staffing shortages, highlighted by the recent departure of tax administrator Melissa Radke at the end of March; she had been with the county since spring of 2023. Nearly two months later, Radke’s position remains vacant.
As tax administrator, Radke was responsible for overseeing the property revaluation process, including presenting plans to commissioners and ensuring fair and accurate property valuations. With the lead position open, this presents a significant hurdle as the county approaches its 2026 revaluation.
This vulnerability was spotlighted during an April 22 meeting, when commissioners voted against a one-year, $400,000 contract with revaluation company Vincent Valuations. Commissioner Brad George motioned in favor of the contract, but a second was not received.
If approved, Vincent Valuations would have assisted and trained current tax office staff to complete valuations, assessments, and property tax appeals.
“Finding the experience is really difficult, to find folks to come in and do this work,” Vincent Valuations owner Ryan Vincent stated. “It’s difficult for counties, it’s difficult for us as a company to find and train and retain folks.”
Vincent added there are multiple vacancies for tax administrators across North Carolina. He said the primary reason employees leave tax administration roles in local government is often for better financial opportunities in the private sector.
According to Burton, employees are also leaving roles in Pender County for career advancement.
“A lot of employees want to feel that they are empowered to be able to move up,” Burton said. “A lot of employees feel like certain jobs are a dead-end job, and we’re trying to forecast the future where some of the employees can have an incentive to stay and to work their way up and become supervisors or become, you know, directors or stuff like that.”
This sentiment was echoed in a January internal employee survey, though participation was low, with only 199 employees of the total 800-person workforce completing it. Springer was disappointed with the low participation of employees, calling for more employees to be included.
“So we didn’t even get 50% of our employees to fill the survey out, that’s somewhat troubling” Springer said. He suggested HR staff go out and meet with employees in each department to better understand their jobs and receive feedback.
“I don’t know about you, but I didn’t like sitting in an office. I would rather be out with the people,” Springer added.
The survey’s key takeaways on retention highlighted concerns about compensation, benefits, and career advancement opportunities. 24% of employees cited pay as the largest worry. In efforts to maintain competitive salaries, Pender County adjusts employee pay using step increases tied to tenure and performance and provides a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to address inflation; last year, all county salaries saw a 3.4% COLA increase. Throughout recent budget workshop meetings, department heads have requested a total of 23 step increases for their employees.
In other survey results, 19% were concerned about career growth and development and 18% calling for better work-life balance. Furthermore, 11% specifically requested mentorship or leadership development programs as initiatives the county should pursue.
In regards to career development, Pender County currently provides training for employees as needed and offers financial support for employees obtaining work-related certifications. It’s unclear which certifications Pender pays for; some certifications such as OSHA safety certification are a relatively low cost around $100, while certifications required for tax appraisers or assessors can reach as high as $2,000.
“If you invest in your employees, you pay them a salary that they’re worth, and you mentor, you coach, you bring those employees along, they’ll stay with your organization,” Burton said. “If you don’t invest in your employees like you should, other surrounding counties or agencies are going to take them away from you.”
In the survey, 20% of employees requested more flexible work schedules and 23% wanted a county-wide salary study. The latter would examine employee salaries and compare them with other counties to ensure competitive and fair rates. Employees also expressed the desire for a county-wide recognition program to acknowledge people going above and beyond in their roles.
While survey data showed 71% employee satisfaction with Human Resources, Tate was worried about the 29% who disagreed.
“What mechanisms do we have in place to help those 29%? That’s a high number. And is that number increasing or is on a decline based on the previous year results?” Tate questioned.
HR Deputy Director Kimberly Bennett replied to Tate stating a full survey had not been conducted last year, but hopes to do another next year to compare results and track areas of improvement.
“I don’t like the 71% to be honest as an HR representative,” Bennett said. “I don’t like that, I would rather employees know that they can come to us at any point in time.”
At an April 22 meeting, Bennett outlined the HR’s efforts to enhance employee experiences, including a wellness incentive program, enhanced longevity benefits, and various career development training workshops. HR also plans to boost employee engagement through events and open-door policies.
To address retention and recruitment, Bennett said HR is working on attending more job fairs and considering flex work schedules to provide employees with options for when they work, rather than a typical 9-to-5.
“I would like to add, or ask I guess you would call it, to take away the telecommuting or flexible work schedules,” Springer stated. “I don’t know about the rest of the board, but I’m not in favor of people working from home.”
Bennett explained employees aren’t working remotely; rather, they utilize a flexible schedule to balance their home life with county needs, allowing them to start and end their days earlier or later.
Tate suggested expanding Pender County’s reach when it came to hiring: “I think if we look at our recruitment and advertising process and reach out to colleges and universities, there might be a candidate that wants to grow with us.”
Pender HR currently utilizes universities to fill vacancies, such as UNCW, by attending college job fairs and reaching out to universities with programs relevant to open positions.
The county is also launching the Future Leaders Internship Program this summer, to help prep young people looking toward careers in government. The high school internship program will run for nine weeks from June 9 to Aug. 6.
While designed for youth entering the workforce, it’s a step to build a future talent pipeline. By offering mentorship, professional development, and career readiness through hands-on experience across local government departments, the county exposes youth to its operations and diverse career paths, aiming to cultivate future employees from an early stage.
Pender commissioners will publicly review the budget on June 16.
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