Division Chief Patricia Mundell spoke with county commissioners regarding the conversion of 15 full-time employee deputy sheriff positions to 15 full-time employee civilian detention specialists’ positions. Costs associated with salary and training for specialists are lower than that of sheriff’s deputies with entry level pay for a specialist including benefits starting at $51,782 compared to $64,851 for an entry level deputy sheriff. Training is also less with 10 weeks required for a specialist versus 34 weeks for a deputy sheriff. All 15 FTE positions for deputy sheriffs are vacant due to deployments, said Division Chief Mundell.