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Jail’s top overtime earner gets by on little sleep

Deputy Bruce Minker does it by working double shifts and sleeping little

By C1 Staff

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A 55-year-old veteran of the Pierce County Jail says he’s averaged over 800 hours a year in overtime since starting in 1984.

The News Tribune reports that Deputy Bruce Minker does it by working double shifts and sleeping little.

“I get by on three or four hours sleep,” he said. He says he’s a workaholic who doesn’t get tired.

Sheriff Paul Pastor says he monitors fatigue at the jail, but so far it hasn’t been a problem.

Minker says he gets plenty of volunteer overtime due to his seniority and is only required to work mandatory overtime a couple of shifts a year.

Why does he do it?

“I love the overtime,” he says. “I drive a nice car. I have a motorcycle. I have nice things.”

Recently he cut back to care for his son who was battling cancer. Myles Minker died in June.

Minker is also the past president of the corrections deputies guild, and in 2012 he ran unsuccessfully for county executive attempting to unseat incumbent Pat McCarthy.

The current president of the deputies guild, Deputy Brian Blowers, said he’s grateful for deputies like Minker who volunteer to work overtime. The max numer of total hours a deputy can work in one day is 16. The max number of overtime hours in a two-week pay period is 144.

“They’re helping out the rest of the staff,” Blower said.

This year, the requirement for deputies to work overtime has tripled.

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