Webster County sheriff outlines FY26-27 budget, highlights cost-saving programs and staffing proposals
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Summary
Sheriff Luke Fleener told supervisors the sheriff's office budget for FY26-27 preserves core services while relying on contracts, commissary and ankle-monitoring revenue to offset costs; he proposed a $1.50 night-differential across patrol, jail and dispatch and described vehicle and training expenses.
Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener told the Board of Supervisors that the proposed FY26-27 sheriff's office budget contains no dramatic line-by-line changes but relies on a mix of contracts and departmental programs to keep core public-safety services funded. "Public safety is not a revenue generating business that we're in," Fleener said, adding, "it costs what it costs to keep people safe."
Fleener outlined revenue shifts that affect the sheriff's budget: the town of Otho opted out of a $40,000 deputy contract (a decline he characterized at roughly $20,000 in that contract line), a uniform per-diem for rural patrol contracts was set at $20 per population slot, and a 42-hours-per-week contract with the city of Dayton is expected to bring in about $110,000. He said those measures, together with internal programs, help reduce pressure on taxpayers.
The sheriff described two departmental revenue-generating programs. A commissary program provides funds that can be reinvested in jail improvements, and a recently implemented ankle-monitoring program allows some low-risk offenders to serve portions of their sentences at home while paying fees that reduce jail overcrowding. Fleener said last year more than 1,200 people were on the waiting list to serve time in jail and the ankle-monitoring program has lowered that backlog toward about 1,000.
On expenditures, Fleener said salaries are the largest driver of the department's cost structure: when fully staffed the office has 62 employees and salary-and-benefit costs total roughly $3,000,000, with patrol salaries around $1,000,000. He said the office deliberately did not refill one deputy vacancy to realize roughly a $100,000 savings and has cross-trained clerical staff to reduce front-office positions from four to three, which he estimated saves about $150,000.
Fleet and transport costs also shaped the budget. Fleener said patrol vehicles average about $50,000952,000 unfitted, with outfitting expenses raising the cost; the department has placed orders to refresh its fleet and keeps a spare vehicle and three transport vehicles in service. He cited transport mileage and related fuel costs as a largely unseen expense, noting a report that logged roughly 50,520 miles of transports last year and about $85,000 in fuel costs. A recent $14,000 heating-and-cooling repair to a transport van, Fleener said, was paid for from program funds rather than taxpayer dollars.
Fleener also emphasized training and workplace culture as retention tools. He credited jail administrator Mark Gargano and HR efforts for reducing turnover and proposed equalizing night-shift differentials to $1.50 per hour for patrol, jail and dispatch staff; he estimated that change would cost about $25,000 across 11912 affected employees. He said training lines (noted in the budget at roughly $7,000 for dispatch) fund emergency medical dispatch (EMD) and other critical instruction used in crisis response.
Fleener closed by urging supervisors to consider personnel and training investments in context of public-safety needs and by inviting questions from board members and staff.
