BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT -- In the month that he's served as Campbell County's interim jailer, Jim Daley has raised salaries, added computers to track employee and prisoner data once kept by hand, and knocked out a wall to create more work space.
For jail employees, however, one of the most symbolic changes occurred on the new jailer's first day, when he opened the blinds on his office window.
Under longtime Jailer Earl Ping, the blinds had stayed closed, employees said. But Mr. Daley's first act was to open the blinds, brightening the jail's administrative office for the first time in years.
"This isn't just my jail," said Mr. Daley, who -- unlike his predecessor -- prefers to delegate key tasks. "It belongs to the people outside," he said, gesturing toward his sunlit office window.
"There's too much that has to be done for one person to do it all." Mr. Daley, who is not among the six candidates running for Campbell County jailer, was tapped to run the jail on April 20, when Anita Ping found that she could not juggle the job and serve as the detention center's head cook.
Mrs. Ping was appointed jailer in mid-March when her husband, Earl, was forced to retire because of health problems.
Mr. Daley spent much of his first day on the job removing papers taped to two walls of the jailer's office, filing the ones that were important and disposing of those that weren't.
"It's not like Earl wasn't doing a good job, but there's always an easier way to do things," Mr. Daley said.
As the former director of the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force and a former Kentucky State Police trooper, Mr. Daley comes to the jail with a strong law enforcement background, said Capt. Bob Pettit.
Last week, Mr. Pettit returned to his 10-year job at the jail after briefly having left because of frustration over staff turnover and overcrowded conditions.
"He's more attuned to the law enforcement aspect" of the job, Mr. Pettit said of Mr. Daley.
"He's willing to work with law enforcement agencies and the community to get things done."
Mr. Pettit said one of the biggest morale boosters came when Mr. Daley worked with county officials to secure raises for jail employees.
Workers at the Campbell County Detention Center have long complained that they are among the lowest paid in Northern Kentucky, which has prompted high staff turnover.
"I think his getting the pay raises helped a lot," Mr. Pettit said.
"We had former employees who liked what they did, but they had left the jail because the money just wasn't there."
Mr. Daley was quick to credit Campbell County staff and Fiscal Court members for working with him to develop a more equitable pay scale and ensure that the $10,000 was in this year's budget to pay the raises.
The new pay scale raises a deputy jailer's base pay from $7.42 an hour to $8.50 per hour, Mr. Daley said.
That compares to $8.74 an hour in Boone County, and $8.15 in Kenton County.
The Campbell County Detention Center's captain and lieutenants also are receiving pay increases, Mr. Daley said.
All of the raises are in addition to the 4 percent increase that Campbell County employees will receive July 1.
Mr. Daley said the benefits already are apparent.
When he became interim jailer, there were few applicants for deputy jailer vacancies, and of those, several were convicted felons, Mr. Daley said.
"But when we ran an ad (Tuesday), we had at least four or five good applicants," he said.
Also, several former workers who'd left because of dissatisfaction over pay expressed interest in returning, he said.
