Sen. Ruth Hardy offers amendment to S.255 to tighten sheriff oversight
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Summary
Sen. Ruth Hardy told the Senate Committee on Government Operations she will offer an amendment to S.255 adding audit follow-up, public schedule reporting and limits on certain contracts for sheriffs; the committee agreed to hear the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs before further action.
Sen. Ruth Hardy, an Addison County senator, presented an amendment to S.255 on Feb. 24, 2026, seeking to add accountability measures for county sheriffs, including requirements to act on audit recommendations, to publish monthly schedules and to restrict some federal contracting.
Hardy told the Senate Committee on Government Operations the amendment "would not address all of my concerns, but it would maybe help a little bit" and cited prior legislative work to study county and regional government and the oversight provisions in Act 30. She said a sheriff in her district had been convicted of criminal activity while in office, underscoring her view that stronger safeguards are needed.
The amendment would require interim financial reports in transitions to be provided to the auditor and add the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs as recipients. Hardy described a provision that would require the auditor’s written recommendations to be implemented "before the following fiscal year" (or within the short implementation window proposed) and for the sheriff to submit a letter to the auditor detailing changes made.
Hardy proposed that willful failure to implement audit recommendations be a category B offense under existing classifications. She also proposed that sheriffs submit monthly schedule records to the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs and "post it publicly on the sheriff's department's website so that there's public accountability for it." Another provision would suspend a sheriff’s salary while confined and reinstate pay upon release or when duties are restored by court order.
The amendment would also require each sheriff to adopt model policies created under prior law and would, in some cases, prohibit sheriffs from entering contracts with agencies of the United States for law-enforcement work. Hardy said the pilot-program effective date in the bill should be contingent on the county and regional government study committee finishing its work and any subsequent legislative action, similar to contingency language used in Act 73.
Committee members praised parts of the amendment while urging caution about delaying the pilot’s effective date. Sen. Wagner said the amendment "gets at some of the concerns we've heard" but would not support pushing the pilot’s start date; several members suggested hearing from stakeholders, including the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs, before taking the amendment to the floor. The committee agreed to request that department testimony and tentatively scheduled that appearance for 1:30 p.m.
Next steps: The committee will hear testimony from the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs and revisit the amendment before deciding whether to offer parts of it on second reading or to divide it on the floor.
