The Commission of St. Mary’s County on Tuesday approved a multi‑part staffing realignment requested by the sheriff’s office that repurposes vacant correctional officer and temporary/grant positions into a set of permanent roles intended to support reentry, pretrial services and administrative continuity.

Captain Sarah Smith, speaking for the sheriff’s office, said the request converts seven existing vacancies into three offender reentry case managers, one mental‑health offender case manager, one pretrial case coordinator, a senior classification specialist, a full‑time property specialist and one administrative lieutenant (a promotion from a vacant sergeant rank). The office expects the net one‑time IT cost tied to the conversions to be $8,741 and will absorb that in the FY26 budget, Smith said.

Smith described operational drivers: rising workloads from public‑information act requests, court‑ordered expungements, digital evidence demands and the need for stable day‑reporting and pretrial supervision. The captain said many of the conversions formalize grant or temporary roles that currently provide essential services but lack stability.

Commissioners discussed vacancy counts (the office reported eight sworn vacancies and roughly 20 correctional vacancies, many in conditional‑job‑offer/backfill status) and emphasized that the conversions rely on existing vacancy savings rather than new full‑time positions. The board approved the conversion and a related budget realignment by voice vote.

Separately, the sheriff’s office requested two full‑time contract deputy positions to staff an additional courtroom that the administrative judge’s office expects to open soon. Presenters said each courtroom requires a deputy and redundancy so staff can take leave; the county authorized two contract deputies effective immediately to support the new courtroom and ongoing courthouse security needs.

Commissioners noted the potential budgetary impact in the next fiscal cycle from adding positions and underscored the constitutional responsibility to maintain courthouse security. The sheriff’s office said it will manage training and background timelines and expects the time to fill the posts to take roughly three to six months depending on candidate certification.