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Sheriff reports 15 open jail positions; council discusses recruitment, training and overtime funding
Summary
Sheriff's office told the Personnel Finance Committee it had 15 open jail positions and several conditional hires; the committee discussed a $30,000 recruitment training match, billboard advertising, academy options and overtime budget shortfalls.
The committee discussed sheriff’s office staffing and recruitment needs, including a current shortfall of jail personnel, advertising and training expenditures, and overtime costs.
Sheriff Sugarman reported the jail had 15 open positions and that “we have 8 conditionals out for those positions right now.” He said the department had hired some deputies from within the jail as merit deputies and expected several retirements in the coming months. “I'd anticipate, probably 5 or 6 more deputies making announcements to retire here pretty soon,” Sugarman said.
Committee members asked about recruitment strategies and pay comparisons. Sugarman and staff described a recruitment push that included billboard advertising managed through Lamar; the contact named in the discussion was John Mutrell. Sugarman said the sheriff’s office intended to replicate a previous successful billboard campaign used to recruit corrections officers and believed the campaign had “made a tremendous difference.”
The committee also discussed training and a proposed $30,000 match to be funded from commissary to support recruitment and education efforts. A staff member identified as Reagan was asked to follow up before the next council meeting to determine whether transfers within the existing budget could reduce requested appropriation lines. Reagan said she would review retirements and possible transfer opportunities and report back before the next meeting.
Members raised concerns about overtime budgeting in the jail. One committee participant noted a discrepancy between an adopted budget and available overtime funds described in the request: “we budgeted ... 66,000 for overtime. Here, it states 10,000.” Sugarman said some overtime was driven by an equipment upgrade — a commander upgrade to doors and cameras — that required extra staffing while systems were offline, and that those needs were winding down as the project finished. He also said the department had improved its staffing since larger deficits years earlier, noting the jail had been down roughly 60 employees several years ago and was now down about 15.
Recruitment and training pipeline questions included the academy options. Sugarman and staff said the sheriff’s office now uses the local Southwest Academy for a 16-week academy and highlighted state police lateral-transfer advertising and shorter academy options as competition for applicants.
No formal appropriation was approved at the meeting; the committee asked staff to look for internal transfers, continue recruitment work, and return with more complete compensation and benefits comparisons to aid future decisions.
At the close of the meeting, the committee moved to adjourn.
