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Council questions rising corrections and public-safety overtime costs; staff to pursue county talks on video arraignments
Summary
Councilors pressed staff about increasing corrections costs and higher overtime budgets for fire and police. Deputy Chief Salgado said countywide cancellations of video arraignments have lengthened stays and contributed to higher costs; fire leaders said overtime budgets now reflect historical actuals and special events.
Councilors raised concern about climbing corrections and public-safety overtime costs during the May 21 budget work session.
Councilor Tyler said the city's corrections line is approaching $1 million and asked for the per-inmate charge and options to reduce costs. Deputy Chief Salgado said courts and detention-center changes contributed to increases: "They have stopped the video arraignment process for all agencies," which requires transports and typically produces longer stays that raise costs.
On fire overtime, Chief Wenzel said staff moved to budgeting from actuals rather than placeholders, explaining that recent years' overtime ranged from roughly $1.37M to $1.7M and that FY27 aligns the overtime budget with historical spending and minimum daily staffing needs. Chief Wenzel also noted the department runs roughly 58 to 70 special events annually (school visits, community events) that contribute to overtime. Councilors asked staff to explore possible scheduling flexibility, greater use of existing administrative schedules and conversations with county partners to restore video arraignments where possible.
City Manager Matt Geisel and staff agreed to pursue discussions with county leadership (county manager and court leadership) to see whether video arraignment options can be restored or otherwise mitigated to reduce city costs; staff also offered to provide exact invoiced per-inmate figures and additional detail on overtime modeling.
No formal action was taken; staff committed to follow up with precise numbers and to pursue intergovernmental conversations about arraignment procedures and cost drivers.
