Saving taxpayers money while keeping miscreants incarcerated earned a Pride and Quality Award for Major Thomas D. “TD” Reece, administrator of the Calvert County Detention Center. The Calvert County Commissioners saluted Reece during their Aug. 21 meeting.
Last December, the commissioners implemented an 8.5 hour work center at the facility. The detention center correctional officers had been working a 12-hour rotating shift schedule for nearly 10 years.
“The overtime costs associated with the current schedule continue to escalate with [the] increase in correctional staff,” Reece stated in a memo to the commissioners back in December. “In addition to the overtime cost the schedule has proven to be a management nightmare. Direct communication with the rank [and] file staff is near zero as shift change occurs prior to and after the command staff reports to work. The staff working as few as five-day shifts in one month leads to a breakdown in communicating necessary changes to the rank and file staff.”
In recommending the 8.5-hour work day, Reece noted the “four-on, two-off work schedule has zero built-in overtime, which should lead to a reduction in overtime cost to the county. The schedule is easier to manage as every shift change will occur when a member of the command staff is present to answer any questions or to communicate a change directly to the staff. The schedule does not require an increase in manpower to make the change.”
Calvert County Government Employee Recognition Committee Chair Kim Gott noted in a memo to the commissioners that there has been a decrease in overtime expenses at the detention center totaling over $13,000 per pay period. “It is estimated that at this rate, the county will save $300,000 per year in overtime costs,” Gott stated.
Reece thanked Department of Finance and Budget Deputy Director Joan Thorp for submitting Reece’s name for the Pride and Quality Award. He also thanked Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans [R] for approving the plan prior to its submission to the county commissioners and commended the detention center staff for its cooperation. “They were very receptive,” said Reece.
“This is a good example of the teamwork that goes on in county government to be more efficient with tax dollars,” said Commissioner Susan Shaw [R]. “There’s a lot of that going on in county government. Three hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We just have to be as fiscally conservative and tight as we can.”
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