KINGWOOD — The City of Kingwood and a former officer agreed to settle the city’s complaint over his departure from the force.
The agreement calls for Deputy J.T. Knotts and the Preston County Sheriff’s Department each to pay Kingwood set amounts.
After an executive session at Tuesday’s meeting, Kingwood Council voted unanimously to accept the settlement. Council said terms of the settlement would be released after all parties had agreed.
On Wednesday, Preston Sheriff Dan Loughrie said he had agreed and his department will pay Kingwood $1,500. Knotts, now a deputy in the department, said he agreed to the settlement as well, but did not have the figure available.
City attorney David C. Glover and Bradley Wright, who represented Knotts, said in a joint statement to The Dominion Post on Thursday, “The City of Kingwood and Justin Knotts have reached an agreement in the amount of $2,082.09.”
They refused to provide the newspaper with a copy of the contract between Knotts and the city, saying, “Since the Contract contains some sensitive information, the City of Kingwood and Justin Knotts have agreed to not disclose the Contract to you. We are able to state that Mr. Knotts was hired by Kingwood on July 15, 2018; the Contract in question was entered into by the parties on April 2, 2019; Mr. Knotts started at the Academy on April 15, 2019; Mr. Knotts left his employment with Kingwood for the Sheriff’s Department on September 3, 2019.”
“I’m glad it’s over,” Knotts said Wednesday of the ongoing talks. “There’s been some misinformation,” in prior news stories, he said.
He noted that he worked nearly nine months for Kingwood before he signed the contract with the city that council said in earlier meetings specified he would work a year for the town after graduating from the police academy or repay Kingwood for training expenses. The city paid for his training.
Prior stories said he signed the contract when he was hired.
“I found it on my desk,” Knotts said of the contract. “At that point I was two weeks away from the academy, and if I didn’t sign it then I was out of a job.”
Kingwood has pushed to enforce the contract, saying it is tired of city taxpayers paying for officers to be trained, only to see them depart for other jobs.
“I didn’t leave because I didn’t like it there. I left because my wife and I agreed that long-term the sheriff’s office put me in a better position,” Knotts said.
Kingwood originally sought $5,649.95 from Knotts.
Loughrie said $1,500 is what the county would have paid for tuition at the State Police Academy, if it had sent Knotts. City and county officers must complete a 16-week training course at the academy in order to be certified.
The sheriff said his office did not recruit Knotts.
“We get guys that come in here all the time that are certified,” he said.
Knotts, former Star City Officer R. Martin Jr. and former Terra Alta Officer T.A. Nestor, the last three deputies hired, were all certified officers when hired.
The sheriff noted his department must hire through Civil Service. Applicants take Civil Service written and physical exams, which are administered by the Preston County Deputy Sheriff’s Civil Service Commission, and the names of those with the top three scores are given to the sheriff when there is an opening.
Knotts said he makes less per hour as a deputy than for the city.
“But there’s just so much more to it,” he said. “Benefits in general encompass more than just an hourly rate.”
New law requested
Kingwood isn’t done with the issue of what one councilman called “cannibalization between agencies” of trained personnel, whether they be police or water plant operators. Council plans to ask the state municipal league to lobby for a new state law.
It hopes the legislature will pass something similar to a South Carolina law that says if a government entity hires a police officer within two years of the officer being hired and trained, the hiring entity must reimburse the other agency.
Under the South Carolina law, it would pay 100% of the cost of training the officer, including an officer’s salary paid during the training period and other training expenses incurred while the officer was attending mandatory training, if the officer is hired within one year of the date of completion of the mandatory training.
In South Carolina that falls to 50% if the officer is hired after one year but before the end of the second year after the date of completing mandatory training.
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