Sheriff asks Weber County to fund 10 contract-city positions and raise event fees; commissioners endorse drafting amendment

Sheriff Horbon and his staff asked the Weber County Commission on Feb. 23 to approve adding 10 positions charged to the county’s contract-city program and to authorize a fee increase for contracted services. The proposal would move per-capita service levels toward about 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents from roughly 0.57 today and raise the hourly fee for contracted events into the low‑$90s to cover fuel, training and planning costs.

County staff emphasized the request responds to sustained recruitment progress and council-level support for competitive wages. Julie Stoddard told commissioners the county has filled many enforcement vacancies and that adding 10 positions — a mix of four new deputies and six lateral hires in the near term — would let the sheriff’s office restore units such as street‑crimes and traffic enforcement and reduce caseload pressures. “This additional 10 not only will up the per capita from 0.57, but allow us to get some things back in place like street crimes to bolster the traffic unit, and add to investigations and carry that caseload,” Stoddard said.

Sheriff Horbon described the fee proposal as a practical step to make contracted work cost‑neutral: staff estimated a new flat hourly charge in the low‑$90s (staff cited $92–98 as modeling examples) to replace the current ranked fee schedule. “With the new numbers, with the contracts that the cities, it's gonna bring us closer to '95 or '98,” Horbon said. County staff said the fee increase would cover fuel and ancillary costs that are not otherwise recovered and that some planning and event‑management labor is absorbed by lieutenants today.

Commissioners questioned how the increases would affect individual contract cities’ rebates and billing. Staff explained that the typical rebate city receives would be reduced to cover the additional costs for months when the increase applies and suggested first‑billing adjustments or spreading the change into a future billing cycle to avoid a one‑time out‑of‑pocket hit. Stoddard noted the sheriff’s office is “positive on the budget so far,” and that additional revenue sources (for example, billing ICE for certain encounters) could offset longer‑term impacts.

The commission did not vote on a final amendment at the session but directed staff to prepare formal ordinance language and a budget amendment for a future meeting and to coordinate legal review. Commissioners also asked staff to run a rolling 12‑month fiscal projection so the board can see ongoing cost implications before acting.

What’s next: staff will draft the ordinance and budget amendment, circulate it to legal, and present the item to the commission in a future meeting for formal first and second readings if the board chooses to proceed.