Clackamas County orders one‑year program‑level budget oversight of sheriff’s office after audit finding

Following a lengthy discussion about budgeting tools, an audit finding and the public safety levy, the Clackamas County Board voted 4–1 to require the sheriff's office budget be adopted by program and category for one year as a diagnostic and transparency measure.

Commissioner Martha Savis introduced the topic and said she had consulted legal counsel and county finance staff, who confirmed Oregon budget law permits adoption by program and category. "I propose that we have staff prepare the budget, and adopt it by program and category," Savis said during discussion of accountability following an audit finding of prior overspending.

Gary Schmidt and finance staff said budgeting by program and category is legally permissible but countywide adoption would increase the number of supplemental budgets and staffing workload; they recommended scoping the effort to allow staff to estimate implementation costs. Chief county finance and staff said the APOS all‑positions budgeting tool used for personnel forecasts had been a chronic source of discrepancy.

Sheriff Brandenburgg responded that the APOS report had been "off by millions" and that her office deliberately held 44 vacant positions last year to avoid catastrophic overspending after receiving conflicting signals about hiring authority. "APOS has been underfunding my office by millions," the sheriff said, and added that the 2026‑27 budget uses corrected APOS numbers and that many of the sheriff's programs publish performance measures under the office transparency page.

Board members debated whether the change should apply countywide or be piloted for the sheriff's office only. Given staff capacity concerns, the board narrowed the motion during discussion and directed staff to adopt the sheriff's office budget by program and category for one year; the motion passed on a 4–1 vote (Commissioners West, Helm, Shrader and Savis in favor; Chair Roberts opposed). Finance staff warned implementation would require additional staff time and produce more frequent supplemental budget requests.

What the change means: for the coming fiscal year the sheriff's office budget will be presented and adopted by program (for example patrol, corrections, court services) and by category (personnel, materials and services, capital). The stated purpose is diagnostic: to identify where overexpenditures have occurred and to provide clearer reporting for the public and the board. County staff will return with an estimate of the staffing/time impact and the work plan for implementing the pilot.

Next steps: the board asked county finance and the sheriff's office to coordinate through the existing work group, estimate the fiscal and administrative impact of program/category budgeting, and return with a timeline and recommended reporting format before the new fiscal year.