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Q&A
Sheriff's Office overtime expenditures and budgeting
5:15:27
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Council Member Justin Brannan questions Commissioner Preston Niblack about the Sheriff's Office overtime expenditures, which are significantly higher than budgeted. They discuss the reasons for the increased overtime and how it's being managed.
- Actual overtime spending is around $3.5 million, compared to $900,000 budgeted
- Increased responsibilities and 24/7 operations contribute to higher overtime
- Overtime is funded through PS accruals in the budget
- A new class of deputy sheriffs is expected to help manage overtime spending
Justin Brannan
5:15:27
I want to talk about the Sheriff's Office and overtime expenditures.
5:15:32
In FY twenty five, DOF had about $900,000 budgeted for sheriff overtime and adoption.
5:15:41
As of February, the actual spending is around 3 and a half million.
5:15:45
Are there limits placed to OT spending that are more in line with the budgeted amount for the sheriff's office?
Preston Niblack
5:15:54
So let me say first, I think that we are expecting that the new class of deputy sheriffs that we're onboarding currently will help us with managing, overtime spending.
5:16:05
There are you know, the sheriff's office has gone from a kind of nine to five operation prior to the pandemic to a more 20 fourseven operation now and has added responsibilities, rising electronic monitoring caseload, etcetera.
5:16:20
So we have to meet the operational demands that are on the sheriff's office.
5:16:26
Believe me, we are in continual conversation with OMB about our spending.
5:16:32
And I believe CFO James can address this, but I think we've funded our overtime out of PS accruals in our budget, so we've not actually spent more than our budget for that purpose.
Justin Brannan
5:16:43
But is is the issue that I mean, because I I look back at FY 2021 before your time, adopted budgeted headcount was about 595 hundred and 90,000.
5:16:57
Actual expenditures were 6,100,000.0.
5:17:00
It's almost a hundred it was almost a % over budget.
5:17:03
So is it an issue of we need to hire more sheriffs?
5:17:06
I mean, is that what's going on?
Preston Niblack
5:17:08
You know, I think there's two things going on.
5:17:10
Right?
5:17:10
One one is we have more duties.
5:17:14
I mean, the sheriff has duties, and those duties have expanded.
5:17:19
And they require a certain amount of time and overtime.
5:17:25
I think the standard approach or standard budgeting approach is honestly to sort of not give you all the overtime that you spent last year but to give you a number that you're expected to try and manage toward.
5:17:37
But if operational demands are such that you exceed that number, then we're going to have to deal with that with the budget office.
5:17:47
As I said, I think we've pretty consistently funded our overtime spending that's over beyond what we were budgeted, with PS accruals.
5:17:58
So we haven't had to go back to get a new need for, money for, our overtime spending.
Justin Brannan
5:18:05
What is the I'm looking back at your testimony.
5:18:07
I don't know if you mentioned the current budgeted and actual headcount in the sheriff's department.
Preston Niblack
5:18:13
I'll let CFO James address the headcount and the budget if we have that information.