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Dubuque County sheriff outlines nearly $948,000 in FY27 capital requests, warns of $200,000 revenue loss
Summary
Sheriff Joe Kennedy told supervisors the sheriff’s FY27 capital improvement program totals about $948,000, citing urgent equipment replacements and the loss of roughly $200,000 a year in inmate phone revenue after an FCC ruling. He also requested additional corrections officers and detailed vehicle and facility needs.
Sheriff Joe Kennedy told the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the sheriff’s office will seek roughly $948,000 in capital funding for fiscal 2027 to cover a range of end-of-life equipment and facility needs.
"These are the things that the deputies use daily," Kennedy said of in-car computers, printers and scanners that the sheriff’s office plans to rotate on a multiyear schedule to smooth budget impacts. He said some devices are now out of warranty and need replacement.
Kennedy also renewed a personnel request the board considered last year. The office originally sought three additional corrections officers; the board approved two positions previously (one to start July 1 and a backfill tied to deployments), and Kennedy said the department hopes to expand to a total of six positions over time to address staffing shortfalls driven by extra vacations, training and transport duties.
The sheriff outlined several capital needs in the CIP. He highlighted squad-car replacements — patrol vehicles commonly exceed 120,000–130,000 miles — and said the office will continue rotating vehicles to avoid safety and reliability risks. He described a GeoWell pump that typically fails every three to four years and said keeping a spare on hand avoids critical outages. Technical operations superintendent Jay Gonzales said a pump replacement with motor and labor runs about $12,500, while a full pipe replacement previously cost roughly $25,000.
Kennedy warned supervisors the office must absorb a revenue loss from inmate phone service after an FCC ruling and a denied appeal. "There was about $200,000 a year in stuff that we were purchasing that was going back into the [inmate] fund that now is gonna have to go on the county's dime," he said, adding the change will require county general-fund support for items previously covered by the inmate fund.
Other FY27 CIP items Kennedy described include a proposed roof replacement for the 770 building (budgeted as $200,000 per year as a placeholder while the city conducts a space-needs study), a $125,000 estimate to replace an aging jail intercom system running obsolete software, a planned security-camera server replacement in FY28, carpeting replacement in high-traffic CID areas (negotiated as a 50/50 split with the City of Dubuque), and phased elevator-cab replacements to address cracked frames and vibration issues (an immediate north-elevator cab replacement estimated at $64,000, with $45,000 set aside annually for the other two cabs).
Stella, county staff, confirmed the CIP request is for capital projects only and does not include personnel costs for correctional officers. "That includes the funding of the CIP items that are in future years, but it does not include correctional officers," she said.
Kennedy said the department is balancing near-term needs with the county’s fiscal constraints and that some items can be staged across years. The board did not take formal action on the sheriff’s requests at the session; supervisors indicated they want additional cost detail and said they will consider debt-service options and other funding strategies as part of broader budget planning.
