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Sheriff asks for modest increase, warns of overtime pressures and FTE rebalancing
Summary
The sheriff told the council committee the FY27 packet includes a $51,660 operating increase and a reconciliation-list item to rebalance 1.31 FTEs from grants to the general fund for judicial security; the office also requested a $250,000 overtime increase after several years of overruns.
The Montgomery County sheriff briefed the budget committee on staffing and overtime pressures on Thursday and requested committee consideration of a reconciliation‑list item that would reallocate 1.31 FTEs from grant support to the county general fund.
Council staff noted the executive recommended a $51,660 (0.16%) increase for the sheriff's office for FY27 and identified $178,043 (1.31 FTEs) as a reconciliation‑list item reflecting workloads previously supported by grant funds. Staff said those are filled positions and recommended showing them as known commitments (an asterisk) for full‑council clarity.
Staff also flagged a requested $250,000 increase in the overtime budget to reflect historical overtime needs; staff said overtime expenditures have exceeded budget since FY21 and have grown substantially since the pandemic. The sheriff reported progress on hiring—recent academy graduates and nine recruits in the current academy class—and said increased staffing should help reduce overtime over time.
Committee members asked for context on why overtime rose compared with earlier fiscal years and discussed court scheduling and pandemic-related backlogs as contributing factors; members welcomed the hiring update but pressed for a fuller explanation of trends shown in staff charts. No formal amendment to the packet was recorded; staff recommended placement of the 1.31 FTE item on the reconciliation list for full-council review.
