Sheriff gets $12,000 salary increase; Committee formed to redraft agreement between county and towns for animal control services
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Oct. 7 — Town representatives showed up in force at Monday night’s Page County Board of Supervisors’ work session to voice strong opposition to a proposal by the county to charge each town an additional fee to provide animal control services within corporate limits.
“That is a burden that we will have to add to our taxpayers that we don’t want to,” Stanley Town Manager Terry Pettit told the board on Monday. Pettit noted that 40 percent of Page County’s population resides within the three towns (8,875 of the county’s 23,750), and they would be taxed twice for the same service.
“We truly feel we are all citizens of Page County,” Shenandoah Town Manager Charles Jenkins stated at Monday’s meeting, “and they should not be paying extra for these services.”
Representatives of each town pointed out how they provide services for county residents — with no extra fee — and how they often work with the county, particularly in the area of law enforcement, when the town police department’ officers back-up sheriff’s office deputies on calls, and visa versa.
“By doing that assisting and still having to pay that fee on top…it seems a little unreasonable for our citizens,” Luray Town Manager Bryan Chrisman stated.
While the state mandates that counties must provide animal control services, the local responsibility was assigned by supervisors more than two decades ago to the Page County Sheriff’s Office. In July, shortly after the new FY25 budget went into effect, Sheriff Chad Cubbage approached the board of supervisors with an ultimatum — a personal salary increase of $18,000, or the sheriff’s office (as a department) would stop managing animal control services by Labor Day.
“I’ve done it eight years for free… but all the liability on calls is on me,” Sheriff Cubbage told PVN in July.
Many sheriffs receive an additional local stipend annually to manage animal control for their counties, on top of their six-figure, state compensation board salary. Those additional stipends range from a whopping $30,000 in Orange County, to $0 in neighboring Shenandoah County (Warren pays $12,000 and Rockingham $7,000). More recently, Sheriff Cubbage lowered his request to $12,000 — and supervisors acknowledged that it would be much easier to pay the sheriff’s salary increase, rather than have to revamp an entire department.
“Whether we like it or not…I think the citizens are better served to have the Sheriff’s Office handle this,” District 4 Supervisor Isaac Smelser stated just prior to making a motion to pay the $12,000. “I personally don’t think we can handle it as well as they can.”
Smelser’s motion passed, 4-1, with District 1 Supervisor Keith Guzy dissenting. District 5 Supervisor Jeff Vaughan was absent from the meeting.
“Things like this should have been done in the budget season and spelled out,” Supervisor Guzy stated, “rather than come to us and say this is going to be shut down.”
Guzy would later make a motion directing county staff to form a working committee containing one representative from each town to redraft or amend the proposed Memorandum of Understanding on animal control services between the county and the three towns. County attorney Michael Helms stated earlier in the meeting that the MOU outlines “who is responsible for what”, such as stating standard hours of service, how to deal with (or potentially charge fees for) emergency medical veterinary services, establishing who handles “after hours” calls, and potentially detailing reimbursement by the towns for the county service.
“We’re all Page County…we work daily with the police departments…and I agree with the towns, they shouldn’t have to pay an extra fee for this, when it’s the county’s responsibility,” Sheriff Cubbage told the board on Monday. “When I came up to the Board with this proposal, I didn’t intend to put it off on the towns.
“There are no hard feelings over this thing…if the county wants to take it over, fine…if you want the Sheriff’s Office to continue doing it, fine…but I just won’t continue to do it without compensation,” Sheriff Cubbage continued. “I don’t think what I’m asking is unfair. I don’t look at this as a raise…just compensation for providing a service…that extra responsibility, which is the county’s responsibility.”
While the sheriff got an extra $1,000 per month tacked on to his salary (now standing at more than $142,000 annually with benefits), the separate issue of the MOU for animal control services and the potential fees that could come with it brought out more council members than the previous quarterly joint meetings with the county, which ended abruptly in 2023. So many council members attended the supervisors’ meeting on Monday, that Stanley and Shenandoah declared formal meetings due to having a quorum of members present. Beyond the councils, two police chiefs spoke up as well.
“I think there’s a lot of things we need to look at as a group before we sign anything,” Stanley Police Chief Ryan Dean told supervisors. “I have a lot of questions.”
“It’s not that we deserve this service, we expect this service” [from the county], Luray Police Chief C.S. Bow Cook said on Monday night. “If Dr. Fox [superintendent of schools] asks for a raise, you don’t punish the towns…these animals could be from anywhere in the county. If we go into this agreement [as is], we are going to need more patrol officers.”
Chief Cook stated that since 2017, Luray police officers have responded to 949 of the 2,131 animal control calls within town limits — nearly half. Similar stats were provided for Shenandoah, noting that it was hard to distinguish between joint calls with the county and calls handled just by the town. Pettit also noted that tourists initiating animal control calls would pay nothing into the costs.
Of course the county’s main concern is limited staff.
“We may not be able to respond to the towns because we’ve only got three people,” Page County Administrator Amity Moler stated at the board meeting.
Although the county currently pays for three positions in the Sheriff’s Office with local dollars assigned to animal control (ACO), only two are actually dedicated to animal control services, while the third is a back-up and assigned road duty.
“They should just be animal control and not going out on the road,” District 2 Supervisor Allen Louderback stated on Monday night.
With the $12,000 payoff to the sheriff approved, the Page County Sheriff’s Office will continue to manage animal control services through the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2025. During the next 35 weeks, a working committee will be formed to iron out the details of a new Memorandum of Understanding on animal control services between the county and the tree towns. That agreement will most directly effect the operations of the Sheriff’s Office and the three town police departments.
For more information on Page County government,
visit https://www.pagecounty.virginia.gov/
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COMMENTARY ~ Taxed twice, but fewer services?
Do we need pursuit agreements with the adjoining counties, State Forrest and National Park?
The more I think about the $12,000 raise for pretty much doing nothing, the madder I get. The sheriff could save $12,000 on his food bill for example if $157K isn’t enough. I don’t think he should get anything extra. A long time ago we had a judge here named David Crump. He’s out there. Ask him about it. Judge Crump wanted us to buy new furniture, etc for his office. I had a letter published that explained how if he wanted new furniture, then he should buy it himself like businesses have to do. And then this, “And if you don’t like that, we can get another judge.” Not long after, he left town, and a story in the paper about his tenure revealed that the office for the new judge didn’t have any furniture because judge Crump took it all with him. Now some might say you can’t talk to a judge like that, you’re undermining confidence in the legal system, it’s curse and abuse, it’s contempt of court, and other BS. Well, some may not have had the time to like it, but the US Constitution says you have to make time. When they aren’t forced to make time, that’s why Washington is so messed up now.
Sheriffs enforce laws. They’re animal control laws. Why does the Sheriff get even more pay to enforce these laws? Needing more deputies is one thing. Demanding a bigger salary for himself is vastly different.