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Sheriff urges larger budget as council and administration spar over overtime and benefits
Summary
The Cuyahoga County sheriff told the Committee of the Whole he needs up to $217 million — driven largely by rising overtime — while the administration and council debate whether benefits and holiday pay were fully included. The county—s innovation team said reallocating non‑security tasks could save about $4 million over time.
The Cuyahoga County Committee of the Whole heard on Nov. 17 from sheriff—s officials who said rising overtime and related benefits make the department—s budget request larger than the administration recommended.
"We feel that $213,000,000 will get us there," said Chris Costin of the sheriff—s department, describing a budget tied to a $21,000,000 overtime projection. Costin and his finance team said higher projected overtime or contract settlements could push needs as high as $215 million to $217 million.
County OBM and council members disputed how overtime and benefits were counted. Donna Cleal, the sheriff—s finance manager, told the committee she and other sheriff—s staff felt recent budget meetings with OBM were "very contentious" and said officials still "stand by our number." Council members pressed for clarity about what the administration—s figures included and where shortfalls appear.
The administration—s staff and council members traced several differences to accounting lines for PERS and Medicare, "union allowances" such as payout of accrued vacation and holiday work, and how overtime was recorded. OBM identified about $4.6 million in technical adjustments for the sheriff to cover holiday work and retirement/Medicare impacts.
Dale Armbruster, with the Office of Innovation and Performance, said the office has been working with the sheriff—s team since January and proposed shifting non‑security tasks such as laundry and commissary management to civilian staff. "We hope we can draw down that overtime value next year by up to that $4,000,000," Armbruster told the committee, while stressing the change would require hiring and training the civilian positions and disciplined quarterly reviews.
Nestor Rivera, chief of corrections, said tighter daily oversight of approvals has identified areas of past "abuse" and that implementing the new shift pattern is operationally possible but will take time to realize savings.
Council members repeatedly returned to the county—s practice of adding multi‑million dollar supplements late in the budget cycle. One council member said the November history of adding $10 million or more to balance appropriations must stop and urged a clearer, more conservative approach.
OBM said it would continue quarterly meetings with sheriff staff and that any sales‑tax forecast change would be delayed until the state—s November numbers are available. The committee did not make a final change to the sheriff—s appropriation at the hearing; council members and the administration will continue negotiating technical amendments and projections ahead of upcoming votes.
The committee scheduled further review of sheriff overtime and agreed to quarterly performance updates to track implementation of the proposed efficiencies.
