By Thomas Brennan & Amanda Hickey
The Daily News
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — In the market for a firearm?
Excess weapons belonging to the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office will be sold by private sale and to the general public for a total of 60 days before being sold by electronic auction through a licensed firearm dealer following a unanimous decision by the Onslow County Board of Commissioners Monday night.
Commissioners have not yet decided on a price.
The Onslow County Sheriff’s Department has more than 120 Smith & Wesson 4586 automatic handguns, three Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolvers, three .357 caliber revolvers and 351 Mossberg shotguns it originally asked to have declared as surplus and put up for sale to active deputies, detention officers and retired county law enforcement officers, according to information from the county.
“The objective will be for us to get full market value for the weapons and have that money go back into the coffer to benefit the taxpayers as much as possible,” said Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown after the meeting. “I want this to work out best for the taxpayers. They paid for them in the beginning so they deserve to benefit from the sale.”
The other options up for consideration by the board at its Monday night meeting were:
nSelling all weapons electronically through GovDeals, which will only sell to licensed firearm dealers, with the board determining a minimum sale price based on estimated fair market value.
nMelting the weapons for disposal.
According to North Carolina statutes, a municipality is able to dispose of real or personal property belonging to the entity through private negotiation and sale; advertisement for sealed bids; negotiated offer, advertisement and upset bid; public auction; or through exchange.
“Laura Jones, the finance director for Onslow County and myself will get together on the specifics to accomplish the mission the commissioners have intended for the surplus of weapons,” Brown said. “It’s not as simple as just selling a firearm.”
According to information provided by Onslow County, discounts or special pricing cannot be made for law enforcement officers with the exception of those who are retiring.
The topic was originally to be decided in September but was postponed twice.
The commissioners also unanimously voted to increase salaries for 222 employees within the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office. The county had already budgeted in its 2013-14 fiscal year funding the $491,000 needed to implement the increases in January. The 2014-15 fiscal year budget will need a $551,271.16 increase to maintain the pay increases, according to information provided by the county.
Onslow County Human Resources Director Meghan Doyle previously told The Daily News that deputies were making an average of 9.34 percent less than market value while detention officers were making 13.56 percent below market value.
The salary increase will be based on the new salary grades assigned to positions during the study, Doyle said on Tuesday.
She said that some employees will see a slight increase while others will see more in their future paychecks. One group of employees, however, will not get an increase since they are already paid in the new salary range.
For example, a deputy’s salary grade has increased from a 67 to 71; therefore, a new deputy starting in January would make $38,978 compared to today’s salary of $33,318.
“We feel good about the increase, especially about that position because those are the employees who see the most danger on a daily basis,” Doyle said.
Detention officers will see less of an increase with a two-grade salary jump, compared to the deputy’s four, Doyle said. Currently detention officers make $28,481 while starting Jan. 15, they will make $30,805.
Salary grades for detention sergeants, however, will not change and, as a result, there will not be a pay increase.
While employees will soon receive a mass notification about the approval, they will receive individual letters stating their new salary grade and salary after Thanksgiving.
Doyle said the associated pay increase will be effective Jan. 15.