AMITE — New Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker is making some changes to the office.

In the past few years under the administration of Sheriff Sticker’s predecessor Daniel Edwards, there were controversial issues under his watch, including multiple escaped inmates.

When Sticker was elected sheriff back in June, he said he planned to make changes to the parish jail to prevent the recurrence of escapees.

But he says his biggest current problem is employee retention.

Since taking a seat in office four people have left the agency. In the first six month period 72 people left overall including full-time and part-time employees.

“We’ll hire a young man or woman that comes in and becomes state certified and they’re leaving us for after they get the post-certification after we invest in training, they’re leaving going to work for other police departments and other sheriff offices for more money,” Sticker said.

His solution is to increase deputies' pay by 12 to 15 percent depending on their rank and tenure. The money for the pay increases came from eliminating five of seven part-time positions.

The part-time positions that were eliminated were mostly retirees who would come back to work.

Even with the pay increase, Sticker said he is not done with changes to the office, saying he is still working on making lasting changes and ensuring his administration is responsibly spending the influx of cash.

"In the grand scheme of things most of them will be making somewhere between 14 to 15 an hour and even that’s not enough in 2024,” Sticker said.