Title
a. Provide a report on the Sheriff’s staffing needs, including an update on the impact to Sheriff’s patrol operations resulting from the recent transfer of 18 Deputy Sheriffs-Patrol positions to the County Jail;
b. Request support to fill 11 unfunded Deputy Sheriff-Operations vacancies to reduce the impact of the transfer on patrol operations and to work with the County Administrative Office to identify sources of funding to cover the cost of filling the vacancies; and
c. Support the Sheriff’s Office plan to report back by March 2016 with an updated staffing analysis, recruitment efforts, and remaining vacancies
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Committee:
a. Provide a report on the Sheriff’s staffing needs, including an update on the impact to Sheriff’s patrol operations resulting from the recent transfer of 18 Deputy Sheriffs-Patrol positions to the County Jail;
b. Request support to fill 11 unfunded Deputy Sheriff-Operations vacancies to reduce the impact of the transfer on patrol operations and to work with the County Administrative Office to identify sources of funding to cover the cost of filling the vacancies; and
c. Support the Sheriff’s Office plan to report back by March 2016 with an updated staffing analysis, recruitment efforts, and remaining vacancies.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
Over the many years mainly due to financial constraints, the Office has been challenged to meet its staffing needs. The constrained staffing level has caused longer response times for calls for service and longer back-up response times for Deputies in the field. The reduced staffing for Investigations has caused the Investigation Division to change focus in what crimes can be assigned to be investigated. Currently, only homicides and serious felonies can be investigated. As a result, we are unable to investigate and address serious crime trends as they arise.
An additional six (6) Deputy positions in the Patrol Division would provide for additional Deputies being available to respond to calls for service, thus reducing response times. Additional four (4) Detectives and two (2) Forensic Evidence Technicians could be assigned to Investigations allowing for a wider range of crimes to be investigated and investigations to be completed in a timelier manner. One (1) Captain position is being requested to provide the managerial presence that would better meet the daily operations of the Enforcement Operations Bureau (EOB). The annual costs for the requested EOB positions are estimated at $2.0 million.
The population at the County jail is averaging approximately 950 inmates in a facility designed to hold 825. Moreover, the passage of AB 109 has significantly increased the security level of inmates housed in the Jail and in some instances requires the Jail to house inmates for multiple years of incarceration. In fact, one inmate is currently on a 10-year sentence. Many of these inmates would be housed in high security level California State prisons. Instead, they are now being housed at our County Jail.
The Custody Operations Bureau has 142 Deputy Sheriff positions budgeted. Of those positions, 103 are assigned to the Jail. The other positions are assigned to transportation, court security and classification duties. Minimum staffing to operate the jail safely with consideration to the Jail population and the aforementioned information, which also takes into consideration the amount of time needed for vacation, sick leave, training and holidays, the budgeted number of Deputy Sheriff positions for the Jail should increase from 103 to 125 Deputies, additional 22 Deputies. In addition, in order to operate the Jail safely, the Jail needs six (6) additional Custody Control Specialists for the safety of inmates and employees, five (5) additional Inmate Service Specialists to supervise inmate workers to enhance inmates vocational training programs, four (4) additional Corrections Specialists to perform inmates’ booking, receiving, and releasing processes accurately and in a timely manner, and one (1) additional Commander position to oversee day to day activities in the Jail. The annual costs for the requested Corrections Operations Bureau (COB) positions are estimated at $4.1 million.
The Administration Bureau serves as a support unit to the EOB and COB. The Information Technology (IT) Supports Unit needs one (1) additional Senior Department Information Systems Coordinator to support the entire department, especially to facilitate classroom training and to assist with other delayed IT projects due to short staffing, four (4) additional Records Specialists II and one (1) additional Senior Records Specialist for Warrants/Records Division to reduce a large backlog of warrant entries and to process Records’ paperwork in a timely manner, one (1) new Safety Officer to ensure the Office is incompliance with OSHA and other work area requirements, one additional Deputy Sheriff for Civil Unit for the safety of other Deputy Sheriff-Civil and Civil Server and to perform their duties in a timely manner, and one (1) additional Finance Manager I position to oversee complicated Sheriff’s payroll and to be support of other fiscal positions. The annual costs for the requested Administrative Bureau positions are estimated at $0.8 million.
The immediate staffing increase requests and current staffing level for the requested positions are summarized in Exhibit A. The safety staffing needs for the next four years are summarized in Exhibit B.
It was requested to add 18 additional deputies in the Jail during the FY 2015-16 budget process but was not approved. As a result, the Sheriff has taken a drastic measure to transfer 18 Patrol Deputies to the Jail effective October 3, 2015 to maintain the minimum staffing level at the Jail and drastically reduce overtime expenditures in the jail. By this mass transfer of personnel, the Patrol operation is greatly impacted. This reduction in Patrol staffing creates longer response times, officer safety and public safety issues, and in some cases no response at all to certain low-priority calls for service. In addition, if the transferred Patrol Deputies are not able to return to Patrol due to staffing issues in the Jail, the investment in training to be a Patrol Deputy will be impacted. Also, this will lower the morale of the Patrol Deputies and could lead them to accept jobs with other law enforcement agencies. It takes about 18 to 24 months for a Deputy Recruit to be able to function as a Deputy Sheriff-Corrections. Therefore, it is imperative for the Committee to support the request so the Sheriff’s Office could hire and enroll as many recruits as possible for January 2016 basic policy academy. As of this writing there are no vacant positions in Jail Operations and four (4) Deputy Sheriff-Corrections are now under-filling Patrol Deputy positions.
The Sheriff’s Office currently has 11 unfunded Deputy Sheriff-Operations positions. If supported by the Board of Supervisors, the Sheriff’s Office proposes to fill these positions and work with the County Administrative Office during the current fiscal year to identify funding to cover the cost of these positions, including potential savings from recently implemented cost containment efforts such as revised overtime policies, and additional support from the County. The Sheriff’s Office further proposes to report back to the Board of Supervisors in March 2016 with an updated staffing assessment, including the success of its recruitment efforts and vacancies remaining in the Office. Depending on these results of this assessment, the Sheriff’s Office may request additional staffing and funding to preserve the County’s patrol operation levels.
At the writing of this report, there are 15 applicants who are getting close to receiving an offering letter to start basic police academy in January 2016 and 24 applicants to be hired as Custody Control Specialists.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The County Administrative Office has reviewed the report.
FINANCING:
It is recommended that the Sheriff’s office fill 11 unfunded vacancies to reduce impacts to its patrol operations. Depending on the success of its recruitment efforts and timing of employee placements, filling these 11 positions could add an additional $660,000 in costs to the Sheriff’s Office current year budget ($1,320,000 ongoing annualized costs). The Sheriff’s office would work with the County Administrative Office to identify sources of funding to cover these costs, which could include savings from internal costs savings measures as well as Countywide general fund contributions.
Prepared by: Hye-Weon Kim, Finance Manager, ext. 3749
Approved by: Stephen Bernal, Sheriff-Coroner, ext. 3725
Attachments:
Exhibit A
Exhibit B