Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 19, 1995 TAG: 9508210042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
He was right.
Several sheriff's office employees said Friday that they were encouraged by the development.
The salary scale switch not only improved morale, it helped bring back an employee.
Harry Clingenpeel, one of the county's three Drug Abuse Resistance Education officers, left the department this month and started a new job Monday as a patrolman with the Salem Police Department.
Thursday night, he walked into Overton's office and asked if he could return to his old job.
"I told him I'd be glad to have him back," Overton said.
Friday, Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood, who had voiced respect for Clingenpeel's abilities and disappointment that Franklin County had failed to keep him, said, "Something good has happened today."
Clingenpeel, 40, grew up in Boones Mill and still lives there. He said Franklin County is his home, and that he couldn't get that fact out of his mind when he took the Salem job.
With a wife and two children, however, Clingenpeel said the salary he was being offered by Salem - about $3,000 higher than his annual pay in Franklin County - was too much to pass up.
"The salary was the only reason that I left," he said.
When the Board of Supervisors passed a motion to include the Sheriff's Office in the county's pay scale - at a cost of $55,000 - Clingenpeel said he decided to ask Overton if he could return.
Capt. Bob Strickler, who is responsible for the department's payroll, said Clingenpeel was making $19,148 when he left the Sheriff's Office.
Clingenpeel has worked for the department for four years - two as a jailer, and two as a sheriff's deputy and DARE officer.
Clingenpeel's situation was one of the biggest morale-deflaters in the department - a problem that Overton voiced to the supervisors.
Under the state Compensation Board pay structure that the department followed, a new hire with no experience was paid the same salary as a deputy with five years of service.
Now that the employees are on the county's pay scale, they all will receive pay increases, and future raises will be based on performance evaluations and years of experience, Strickler said.
Clingenpeel and other department employees in his salary category are set to receive a $2,000 raise under the new plan, Strickler said.
Friday afternoon, Clingenpeel was accepting hugs and handshakes from his fellow employees.
He said he received a number of phone calls during the last few days from parents and school administrators who said they were sorry to see him go.
"After I left here, I realized how much my job meant to me and how much the community meant to me," Clingenpeel said. "I never really stopped to think about how many friends I have here."
by CNB