MAYVILLE — Salary increases for technicians within the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office were approved at Wednesday’s Public Safety Committee meeting.

Proposed pay hikes for three technician titles are due to technology enhancements and hardships in recruiting and retaining qualified employees.

Specifically, the communications technician trainee would make anywhere between $39,624 and $50,876 annually. The senior communications technician would be paid a salary between $44,075 and $56,513 a year, while the communication systems coordinator would make anywhere between $51,001 and $65,561 annually.

County Sheriff Joe Gerace told legislators attracting qualified and interested candidates hasn’t been easy. With the current pay grades, Gerace said they can’t get people to take the entry-level and management jobs. Gerace said the duties include maintaining the radio system and surveillance cameras across the county, among other communication duties.

“This would put us in a better situation to be more competitive to retain and recruit people,” he said. “People look at the pay (as it stands now) and turn us down. We’ve had people come and go.”

Joseph Porpiglia, county human resources director, told legislators the pay grade reallocations will allow them to offer a competitive wage, recruit and allow employees to move up the ranks.

“We tried to come up with a plan here that’ll have long-standing value,” he said.

There are five employees in the department with one communications coordinator, a senior technician and three technicians.

In other matters, legislators approved budget changes to accommodate increased expenses associated with the countywide radio project. The county received a $6 million grant for upgrades, but costs exceeded by $600,000. Kathleen Dennison, budget director, said the overbudgeted expense figure is still being finalized as they wait to receive a bill.

“From Day 1, we knew it would more than $6 million and knew we had to look at other funding streams,” Gerace said.

Both resolutions will go before the full County Legislature at next week’s meeting.