County approves 3-year contract with Sheriff’s deputies, boosting salaries

Pay hikes will get Orleans to average salaries for smaller counties

ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature has approved a three-year contract with 24 members of the Orleans County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, giving the 24 members a boost in pay to bring the group to the average pay for deputies in smaller counties.

The agreement includes deputies, sergeants, criminal investigators and lieutenants. They are currently about $5,400 below the average base salary for their positions among 13 smaller counties. In Orleans, they currently have a base salary of about $75,000.

They will get a 6.6 percent raise in 2027, bring the base pay to about $80,000, and will then receive 2.5 percent increases every six months – Jan. 1, 2028; July 1, 2028; Jan. 1, 2029; and July 1, 2029.

The agreement brings Orleans in line with the salaries among other smaller counties, and still well below the pay offered by larger law enforcement departments in nearby Monroe County, said Jack Welch, the county’s chief administrative officer. Some of those departments are offering $100,000 to start, he said. In Orleans, new deputies start at about $60,000 base salary.

The county used 13 comparable counties to compare the pay rates. Legislature Chairwoman thanked Welch, county attorney Kathy Bogan and Sheriff Chris Bourke for their work on the agreement which is in place seven months before the current contract expires.