Pima County approves budget remediation for Sheriff’s Department despite overspending concerns

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department received a $3 million budget remediation this week, despite criticism from the Board of Supervisors over being consistently in the red.

Salaries, leave, and overtime put the department’s personnel budget over by $556,000, according to a county memo from Sheriff Chris Nanos, but the remaining expenses are described as “total supplies and services,” including fuel for department vehicles, food for jail inmates, and maintenance supplies.

The department’s total expenses, according to the budget remediation memo, are just over $4 million. However, the department forecasts an additional $965,000 in revenue, bringing the total shortfall to just over $3 million.

Still, Supervisor Jen Allen said she is concerned about the effect on other county programs if one department is consistently overspending.

“That department is effectively making decisions about $3 million worth of cuts in other parts of the county, and that is just simply unfair, and it is not the sheriff's department role,” she said.

While Supervisor Matt Heinz said he doubted the integrity of the department’s budgeting efforts.

“Whining about not getting enough money when you have 27% of the $800 million we have discretion over, that's not a remediation plan,” he said.

According to the memo, cost-saving measures have included cutting officer and correctional training academies, hiring freezes, delaying promotions, and “limiting the purchase of supplies and services to mission essential.”

However, Nanos wrote those efforts were not enough.

“Contractual obligations and inflationary pressures, particularly on fuel, food and utilities, are exceptional and these expenses cannot be reduced,” it reads.

Art Cuaron, Pima County Director of Finance and Risk Management, told the Board at Tuesday’s meeting that the department had actually reduced their shortfall from $5.7 million.

“They have demonstrated tightening of the belt, if you will, in the programmatic areas that they could,” he said.

The board asked the department to return with a report on overtime pay, but supervisors unanimously approved the sheriff’s budget remediation at Tuesday's meeting.