Most of the top 10 highest-paid employees at the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office work hundreds of hours of overtime each year, with one person working 1,300 hours of overtime — or around 25 hours each week — in the last fiscal year, according to wage compensation records obtained by The Park Record.
Carli Latimer, a sheriff’s deputy, is the seventh-highest paid employee in the department, according to Transparent Utah. Latimer made $214,846, including benefits, in 2024. According to the Sheriff’s Office, Latimer graduated from the Utah Corrections Academy in 2020, when she became an hourly employee at the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office. Her starting pay was $86,065.
Latimer earned a $14,500 bump in 2021 and then her earnings increased by $44,190 in 2022. When she was promoted to deputy, Latimer’s pay and benefits increased by $66,000, for a total of $210,977 in 2023.
That’s just about $80,000 less than Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau, who is the highest paid Wasatch County employee with a total annual compensation of $291,000, according to Transparent Utah.
County records show Latimer worked the most overtime in a fiscal year out of most of the top 10 highest-paid employees. In 2024, her overtime topped out at 1,296 hours from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.
Latimer said that when it comes to overtime, she chooses to work extra hours to provide “uninterrupted coverage” for the citizens of Wasatch County.
“In my previous employment, I had the opportunity to work with several retired Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office deputies who have told me countless stories of helping people and making a difference,” Latimer said. “Those stories and those deputies intrigued me to join this profession, so that I too could serve the community where I was born and raised in.”
Overtime is not a requirement of Sheriff’s Office employees, but Latimer said she chooses to work it and genuinely enjoys it.
Latimer is dual certified in corrections and patrol, which allows her to work in multiple divisions, including the control room, jail, patrol and as a school resource deputy.
“I also enjoy working special events such as Swiss Days, Fair Days, movie shifts, commercials and races,” Latimer said.
Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby said the majority of employees don’t work 40-hour weeks. Instead, it’s based on a shift system with one shift lasting up to 12 hours.
Sheriff’s Office employees generally work 80 to 86 hours in a pay period, according to Rigby. He said employees could stack hours at the beginning or end of a shift. That way, employees could possibly work 60 hours one week and 20 the next, or vice versa.
Any position below lieutenant is hourly. In the chain of command, deputy sheriffs are on the bottom rung. One step above is a sergeant. Lieutenants are a step above sergeant. At the top of the chain are the sheriff and undersheriff. There are nearly 70 deputy sheriffs in Wasatch County, according to Rigby.
Rigby said lieutenants are working the same amount of time but are paid a salary and therefore not eligible for overtime pay. Rigby and Undersheriff Josh Probst are salaried employees who work at least 40 hours per week, according to the sheriff. When hourly employees work overtime, they are then paid time-and-a-half.
Wasatch County Dispatch Supervisor Carrie Diggs worked the second-highest amount of overtime aside from Latimer. She has been a Sheriff’s Office employee for more than 22 years.
From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2024, records show Diggs worked a total of 998 hours of overtime. That’s an additional 19 hours of work per week. The year before, she worked an average of 13 hours in overtime per week, or 659 hours total — about a 41% difference.
As a dispatch supervisor, Diggs is responsible for coordinating the dispatch function of the office for both emergencies and day-to-day operations. Diggs said she supervises and supports a staff of 10 dispatchers with her duties, including overseeing scheduling, shift coverage and other daily responsibilities in the office.
Diggs said she also serves as the Bureau of Criminal Identification point of contact for the Sheriff’s Office, oversees monthly validations for records entered in the National Crime Information Center database and serves as point of contact for expungements within Wasatch County, including for the Heber City Police Department — a role with “what is often a tedious process,” but that she does because she values “strong interagency relationships.”
In 2024, Diggs received the Utah Supervisor of the Year Award from the National Emergency Number Association.
“I was truly humbled and grateful for that recognition,” Diggs said. “I love my job, the agency I serve and reside in, and I believe my tenure speaks to that commitment.”
Of the other highest-paid employees, Sgt. Patrol Officer Christopher Goode topped out at $275,305 last year, including benefits, according to Transparent Utah. Then, Lt. Dispatch Jeremy Hales followed with wages and benefits totaling $250,820 in the same year. Sheriff Rigby made $400 less than Hales. Diggs earned $240,533 in wages and benefits. Probst was the fifth-highest-paid Sheriff’s Office employee in fiscal year 2024, earning $234,055 including benefits.
Goode was another highly paid employee who worked additional time in 2024 with 635 hours overall. Goode worked 386 hours of overtime in 2023.
Deputies such as Raymond Baeza, Natalie Bateman and Colton Brimhall also worked significant overtime hours. Brimhall’s 2023 total clocked in at 409 overtime hours. The following year, Baeza and Bateman worked 395 and 165 additional hours, respectively.
In the dispatch department, Diggs ultimately worked 451 more overtime hours in comparison to her supervisor, Jeremy Hales, who worked 547 overtime hours in 2024.
Rigby did not comment on why overtime might double for some individuals from 2023 to 2024, though the Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Leo Lucey said some employees choose to take on more overtime than others. It was Latimer who said that overtime helps provide constant coverage for the public.
In Summit County, Diggs’ counterpart is Suzanne Butterfield.
According to Transparent Utah, Butterfield has been employed at the Summit County Sheriff’s Office since she started as a dispatcher in 2014, earning about $63,000 including benefits. Butterfield was promoted to dispatch supervisor in 2019, when her wages and benefits jumped from about $87,000 to $106,00. In 2024, Butterfield reportedly earned $189,200. That’s about $51,000 less than Diggs in Wasatch County, according to Transparent Utah.
According to Transparent Utah, the median salary for a deputy sheriff in Wasatch County is just over $145,000. In Summit County, the median salary is $118,600 for the same position.
In the Heber City Police Department, the chain of command starts with police officers. Then, senior officer, master officer, sergeant, lieutenant and deputy chief. There are two master officers — who must have a college degree — in the Heber City Police Department.
Master Officer Demille Ryan earned $184,094 in 2024 and Master Officer Taylor Thomas earned $4,000 less.
The equivalent of a deputy sheriff in the Heber City Police Department is a police officer, according to Heber City Police Chief Parker Sever. The median salary for a police officer in Heber City is just over $80,000, according to Transparent Utah.
When asked if overtime is used in the Heber City Police Department, Sever said it was.
“Whenever necessary,” he said. “It’s used to provide coverage for Midway, Heber and their events.”
Wasatch County conducted a county-wide wage study in 2023. That study evaluated each position in the county and its responsibilities, and benchmarked earnings at the time to wages offered externally to those performing similar job functions. The study used comparable organizations in cities like Midway, Park City and Orem, and counties such as Cache, Davis and Duchesne counties.
That study found that 65% of the benchmarked job titles were below the average market for minimum salary comparisons. Only 28% of the positions in the county were within the “acceptable average market minimum.”
“It would appear the county’s minimum hiring salaries are insufficient against the average market,” the study found.
The recommendation from the study was that the county would be best served with a step system to “better ensure meaningful adjustments” occurred without “complicated performance management processes.”
Based on findings, the recommended salary schedule included 11 steps for each role that would be implemented over the course of a decade.
For a deputy sheriff, the schedule would start at around $65,000 and end at around $83,000. An undersheriff would start at about $135,000 and end at $173,000. The dispatch supervisor would start with a pay grade of $73,000 and end at nearly $94,000.
That system was implemented after the study was released.
Rigby said that while individuals like Diggs might make more overtime than others in Wasatch County, it’s not necessarily abnormal to work an additional shift or two per week. That amounts to about 20-24 additional hours per week. Rigby said the additional overtime hours often help fill necessary shifts that would otherwise go unstaffed.
“One of the frustrations we’re working through is that our county does a really good job of paying their employees and, with that said, we do have agencies that are right next to us that are the highest paid in the state,” Rigby said, referring to Park City and Heber City.
However, according to Transparent Utah, the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office shows a higher wage for deputy sheriffs, sergeants and lieutenants than their equivalent roles in Summit County and Heber City.
Rigby said the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office is short two dispatchers, who he said have both gone to other agencies. Because of that, Diggs has remedied the need for additional dispatchers through overtime work, according to Rigby.
“We’re trying to hire new dispatchers into their places, but it usually takes about three months,” Rigby said.
He added that the dispatchers left nearly half a year ago.
Rigby said “almost all law enforcement agencies have open positions” for roles such as Latimer’s.
“It’s not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to be continually hiring because there are retirements, promotions and additional positions added due to population growth, development and the need for additional law enforcement services,” Rigby said.
Rigby said overtime pay can be seen as an incentive in the Sheriff’s Office. He said it’s a way to keep good employees around.
“Most cops have second and third jobs because they don’t get paid as well as they need to in the first place and so there are more and more agencies now that are getting the concept and they’re saying, ‘Look, if you continue to work for us, then that will be more efficient for the city or the county or the state to have this person that’s trained and is going to fill overtime shifts,’” Rigby said. “It’s a benefit and an incentive to them, and for the county or the city, it keeps things consistent.”
One shift Rigby described is what he calls “jail housing control shifts.” There are four of those shifts, he said, that can be filled by employees.
It’s options like those, he said, that help solve financial problems for Sheriff’s Office employees.
“If any employees are in that boat where they need a second job, and then the county would rather not have to compete with other employers for their time, they can work special event shifts that is the overtime rate, or they can work in the housing control,” Rigby said. “That’s how we get that covered, and how the employee gets that incentive to work, and then how the employer, meaning the city or the county, how it benefits them and the citizens.”
Rigby added it is helpful to have frequent updates about pay from the Wasatch County Council, a topic that comes up during the budgeting cycle.
“Our County Council was awesome, because every year they try to tackle this issue, and they care a lot about it,” Rigby said.
However, an independent investigation into the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office conducted by former Utah State Judge Richard McKelvie suggested that there are perceptions of favoritism in the Sheriff’s Office, specifically regarding duty and shifts assignments.
The report was released on Sept. 19 and outlines “shortcomings” in the Sheriff’s Office, including claims about fear of retaliation, misuse of county resources and “deteriorating” interagency relationships. Sheriff Rigby and Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau said they are both committed to addressing the concerns outlined in the investigation report.
“There is a widespread perception within the ranks of the WCSO, at least among the employees and former employees I interviewed, that assignments are used as reward or punishment for perceived loyalty or want thereof,” McKelvie wrote in a section of the report. “Likewise, there is a perception that shift assignments are used in the same manner.”
When asked if he thought there was any risk of overtime assignments being seen as favoritism, Rigby said overtime shifts are available to all employees. He said McKelvie reports “the concerns of some individuals” but acknowledged that there “are no policy violations, nor criminal wrongdoing.”
“The report does not issue findings or make determinations of credibility,” Rigby said, adding that overtime is paid to public safety employees working more than 86 hours in a pay period. “We appreciate all of our employees and are grateful for those who volunteer to work overtime shifts. Overtime shifts are available to all employees equally. The employees in each division receive notice of overtime shifts at the same time and volunteer for additional work shifts.”
Rigby said overtime is “paid according to federal and state law, not as an incentive,” a shift from a position he stated during an interview with The Park Record before McKelvie’s report was released. Then, Rigby said he thought the time-and-a-half pay rate could be used as an incentive for employees to earn additional income.