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Commissioners defer sheriff's supplement and hold firm against end-of-year bonuses
Summary
Board members told the sheriff's office to expect a supplement request to be moved into next year's budget because of filing deadlines, and the commissioners reaffirmed an earlier decision not to authorize year-end employee bonuses.
Commissioners on Nov. 26 discussed a requested budget supplement from the sheriff’s office to cover inmate medical costs and inmate food supplies but agreed to defer action until next year because the timing would not meet county auditor filing deadlines.
Speaker 6 told the board the sheriff’s office had requested a supplement but noted it likely could not be processed quickly enough to appear in this year’s budget, saying, "I know the timeline's challenging that even if we did supplement their budget, it probably wouldn't be actually in their budget till December 8, I think, and the bill would need to be in the auditor's office by December 9." Commissioners responded that moving the request to the next fiscal year was appropriate given the deadlines.
Separately, Speaker 6 sought guidance on end-of-year bonuses. Speaker 2 reiterated the board’s earlier direction to tighten budgets and not authorize bonuses, saying the board should be ‘standing firm’ with the prior decision and that any leftover funds should return to the general fund rather than be used for bonuses. Speaker 6 said departments must have budget authority in place before payroll requests are processed.
No formal vote to approve a supplement or bonus pool was taken; the board instructed staff to advise the sheriff's office that the supplement will likely be included in next year’s budget and to block budget amendments that would move available funds into a bonus roll-up code without explicit board approval.
The board did not specify dollar amounts for the supplement in the meeting; staff indicated additional bills were expected and that a final figure will be provided later.
