Kootenai County auditor urges Hayden to cover full costs of sheriff contract; proposes 40% overhead markup

Kootenai County officials pushed the City of Hayden on Tuesday to pay more for its dedicated sheriff services, presenting a financial analysis that recommends charging an overhead markup of 40% on top of personnel costs and applying credits for vehicles the city already purchased.

The recommendation came from Brandy Falcon, Kootenai County auditor, who told the Board of County Commissioners that Hayden currently pays far less per resident and per $100,000 in taxable value for policing than neighboring cities and that the county’s “justice fund” does not obligate the county to provide enhanced, city-level services for free.

Falcon laid out a timeline of outreach and analysis dating to April, and reviewed numbers the county used to calculate personnel and indirect (“overhead”) costs for the Hayden contract. Using wage and benefit figures current when Falcon drafted her memo, she estimated personnel costs for Hayden’s dedicated positions at roughly $1.1 million (rising to about $1.2 million if a requested lieutenant is added). Falcon said a full allocation of overhead items — vehicle depreciation, fuel and maintenance, training, uniforms, liability insurance, records and administrative support — would amount to a roughly 61% markup, but the county reduced that to a recommended 40% for negotiation and credited Hayden about $271,000 for vehicles the city already owns.

“Hayden is…