Title
Receive the Sheriff's Office Fiscal Year (FY) 2014-15 financial status report.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors' Budget Committee to receive the Sheriff's Office Fiscal Year (FY) 2014-15 financial status report.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
When the current administration took the office, it was reported that the Sheriff's budget would overrun by approximately $5.2 million, $3.7 million in salaries and benefits and $1.5 million in services and supplies if the spending pattern would have been continued.
Between July 2013 and December 2014, 59 employees were hired. Of 59 employees, 30 were recruits who needed to attend six-month police academy and five were hired as Deputy Sheriffs. Out of 30 recruits, five resigned or were terminated within a year. During the same time period, a total of 25 employees were separated from the employment. Of the 25 employees, 21 were safety employees and four professional staff. The annual salaries and benefit costs for the net 34 additional employees are estimated at $3.5 million.
The FY 2014-15 is the year with the lowest vacancies and the highest number of employees who are full-time but not able to perform the job they are hired for. By filling positions mostly with recruits, there were not much salary savings realized and at the same time the overtime keeps going up. In addition, due to the administration change and increased number of retirements would be resulted in significant unbudgeted payouts of approximately $600,000. For these reasons it is expected that the Sheriff's Office needs approximately $1.6 million additional appropriations in salary and benefit accounts. Meantime the new administration has implemented various overtime saving measures including changing the patrol deputies' shift from 10-hour shift to 12-hour shift effective March 7, 2015 and limiting overtime based special teams trainings.
At the beginning of August 2014, the Sheriff's Office agreed to provide police services to the City of King at the Board approved Supplemental Law Enforcement Services (SLES) rate. Currently the Sheriff's Office is working with the County Counsel and the City of King to finalize a month to month contract to provide the services. The Sheriff's Office has provided four Deputy Sheriffs until April 3, 2015 and the staffing level has been reduced to two Deputy Sheriffs since. The revenues to offset the overtime incurred to backfill the loaned positions are estimated at $500,000 if the service is needed until the end of June 2015.
Therefore the Sheriff's Office will be requesting the Committee's support to increase a net of $1.1 million in salary and benefit appropriations at the May meeting. The Sheriff's Office will continue to implement cost saving measures to reduce the estimated overrun as much as possible.
It is also expected the Sheriff's Office needs approximately $600,000 additional appropriations in services and supplies accounts due to various overspent and unbudgeted items. The Sheriff's Office added 28 new vehicles through the County's Vehicle Replacement Program but was not budgeted for the loan/repayment amount of approximately $200,000 in the FY 2014-15 budget. Of 28 new vehicles, 15 were new patrol vehicles without any law enforcement equipment. The new administration is almost completed to fitting the vehicles with appropriate equipment in the amount of $140,000. Another unbudgeted item is the maintenance cost for the Next Generation Radio Project (NGEN) allocated to the Sheriff's Office in an annual amount of $210,000. Other overspent areas are: 1) the costs for repairs and maintenance for buildings and equipment due to the age of the Sheriff's buildings; 2) training costs for recruits and specialized teams; and 3) law enforcement safety equipment.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The County Administrative Office has reviewed the report.
FINANCING:
No financing is included in the report. However, it is expected the Sheriff's Office needs as much as a net of $1.7 million appropriation increase by early June of 2015 to meet its operational financing needs.
Prepared by: Hye-Weon Kim, Finance Manager
Approved by: Steve Bernal, Sheriff-Coroner