Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sheriff Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sheriff urges board to prioritize pay, warns county's fixed revenue and population trends squeeze recruiting
Summary
At a May 4 Cochise County Board of Supervisors work session the sheriff outlined a budget request focused on recruitment and retention, saying the county ranks in the "bottom third" for pay and faces stiff competition from neighboring counties and federal agencies. Staff said the sheriff's department's total proposed increase is about $2.28 million, driven largely by a statutory transfer to the jail district.
The Cochise County sheriff told the Board of Supervisors on May 4 that recruitment and retention are the department's top budget priorities as the county faces market pressure from neighboring counties and federal agencies.
"My philosophy is very simple" the sheriff said, adding that the department has focused on local hiring and a homegrown academy but still loses deputies to state and federal employers offering higher pay. He told the board Cochise is in the "bottom third" of comparable counties for starting pay and said some neighboring counties recently approved raises and hiring bonuses.
The sheriff described several internal steps he has taken to reduce the need for an outside ask, including moving vacancy savings into a vacancy-control pool to shift money toward compensation. He said he will continue to look for operational efficiencies but asked the board to consider a targeted market increase to help close the gap. "What can I do on the personnel side is where I'm going with this internally," he said.
County budget staff provided line-item detail: Stacy said the sheriff's department request includes a total proposed increase of $2,277,169, of which about $1.6 million is a maintenance-of-effort transfer tied to the jail district that staff said is required by statute. Staff clarified that the general-fund "true" increase for the sheriff this year is $6,314, with roughly $600,000 in additional funding requests pending board approval.
Board members and the sheriff flagged a structural funding problem: Cochise's expenditure limit is tied to population growth, and because the county is not growing the board receives only inflationary adjustments rather than the larger revenue increases growing counties see. "If we don't get something going to start increasing the population and the economics of this county, we will be managing the decline of this county," one supervisor said.
The sheriff argued economic development is a long-term remedy, saying the county should pursue industries that can bring jobs and raise the tax base so departments can offer competitive pay. He pointed to partnerships, opportunity zones and regional outreach as ways to attract businesses.
On regional operations, the sheriff said the county participates in a regional SWAT team and noted some deputies are EMTs or paramedics; he supported cross-training where feasible but said paramedic staffing is limited. He praised the care team and mental-health response, noting Sierra Vista's tentative budget includes $200,000 to support the program.
Board members pressed for data on whether the sheriff's academy improves retention; the sheriff said the best indicators are low vacancies and local recruitment through CTE programs, but he acknowledged he loses some employees to DPS, Border Patrol and federal agencies offering much higher pay.
The meeting did not include a vote. The board paused for a short break before taking up the jail-district discussion later in the agenda.
