Sheriff’s captain asks Kootenai commissioners for up to $1.8 million more in jail overtime; commissioners press for justification

Captain Jeremy Hy, representing the sheriff’s office, told the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners on April 16 that the county jail faces persistent staffing shortfalls that could drive overtime spending to about $1.8 million for the remainder of fiscal year 2026 if staffing does not improve. Hy described the presentation as a “data-driven” review of overtime drivers and how the office calculated its request.

Hy said the major drivers of overtime are inmate population, special-housing inmates, court-ordered transports and medical or extradition transports, and he emphasized that detention deputies and custody staff shoulder most overtime shifts. “The majority of the overtime is being worked by detention deputies,” Hy said, and his analysis showed detention deputies accounting for roughly three-quarters of overtime hours.

Hy presented multi-year comparisons showing overtime rising then falling with recent trends; he told the board the $2.8 million figure presented early in the briefing was a total estimate used in modeling but clarified his formal FY26 “ask” for budget planning was $1.8 million (figures he described as non-loaded, i.e., not including benefits). He said the office currently projects about $1.1 million based on the first half of the fiscal year but recommended budgeting the higher figure to ensure minimum staffing and safety.

Commissioners pressed Hy for detail on assumptions and staffing pipelines. One commissioner asked, “So your actual current trend for the first six months of the fiscal year is $1.1 million?” Hy confirmed that figure and added that the department is not meeting minimum staffing levels. Hy said several new hires are in training and that, under optimistic assumptions, 10–12 additional deputies might be ready for the floor by Sept. 30, but he cautioned that not all trainees complete the academy and cited attrition uncertainty.

Hy also described a work to improve overtime tracking. He said the sheriff’s office and payroll staff created a set of overtime codes (about 14–15 codes) to distinguish floor overtime from “uncontrolled” overtime — court transports, medical appointments and DRT transports — so future reporting would be more accurate.

Board members acknowledged the operational need but raised budgetary trade-offs. One commissioner described the difference between $1.1 million and $1.8 million as “at the expense of everyone else,” asking whether the request could be scaled and asking Hy to substantiate the calculation before asking for additional county funds. Hy said the $1.8 million request is intended to assure minimum staffing and safe operations given current incident history.

The commissioners did not take a formal vote on additional funding during the HR meeting. They directed staff to return the request at a business meeting with substantiating documentation so the board could consider the ask alongside other elected offices’ requests during budget deliberations.

The exchange concluded with an agreement to re-present the analysis and updated numbers as trainees complete training and as the department refines overtime tracking.