The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has been racking up tens of millions of dollars in overtime. During the last fiscal year, it amounted to more than $20 million, or 21% of salary costs.
In one case, a custody deputy made $170,000 in overtime in the last fiscal year, far exceeding the employee’s base salary of $103,000.
County supervisors reviewed the spending at this week's board meeting. They also received a report from the county's Auditor-Controller’s Office, which examined how mandatory overtime shifts often exceeded regular shift lengths.
"The rules have been followed, but the rules need to be changed," said County Supervisor Laura Capps. "That's what I'm committed to doing, and that's what our HR director has outlined can begin. These loopholes need to be closed, and that sits with us (the Board of Supervisors). This sort of permissive policy of overtime isn't a substitute for management. We've just seen millions and millions of dollars being overrun. I understand it's for safety, but we have a responsibility for fiscal oversight."
Sheriff Bill Brown called efforts to control overtime for law enforcement duties and jail operations complex.
"That hits the nail on the head. It's a very complicated situation. If it was an easy problem to fix, it would have been fixed long ago."
Brown added that they don’t have enough deputies, making overtime necessary to cover all of the shifts.
He cited staffing the county’s two jails as an example.
"That 658,390 hours is the equivalent of 399 full-time employees. Custody operations are currently budgeted for 350 full-time equivalent employees, leaving a shortfall of 49 FTE's worth of labor hours," said Brown.
Complicating the situation is a $50 million dollar expansion of the Northern Branch Jail in Santa Maria, which will add to daily staffing needs.
Brown said the agency has the same issue with law enforcement staffing, with 258 FTE positions trying to fill the hours that really require 275 positions. He added that they’ve been implementing steps to try to get a better handle on overtime.
But county supervisors say that, given a potential $66 million budget shortfall over the next five years, more needs to be done. One idea is to add an inspector general to provide more oversight.
"I believe that California law gives the board authority to appoint an independent inspector general for the sheriff's office, and coupled with our general powers over the county budget, this allows the board to ensure accountability and protect taxpayer dollars," said Santa Barbara County Supervisor Joan Hartmann.
However, County Supervisor Bob Nelson pointed out that law enforcement isn’t an office job with easily predictable staffing needs.
"They can't budget for homicides. It's not a number on a line. They can't budget for what it's going to cost for mass casualty incidents. They can't budget for a crime happening at the end of a shift. That (kind of situation) happens on a regular basis. Sometimes in the 11th hour of a patrol deputy's shift, where there's a robbery or assault, they have to go further into overtime to be able to cover that."
Supervisors decided to take a broader look at the county’s overtime issue. They asked county staff to come back with information on the top five county departments with the most overtime, and not just the sheriff.
In the end, any overtime policy changes in the short term will have to come from the sheriff’s office. The Board will receive regular updates on overtime numbers.
County supervisors agreed to look at the issue again this fall, after they get more information on policies, ongoing policy changes, and the potential value of adding an inspector general.
