It’s still a new year with a brand-new grand jury, but for the second year in a row, the issue remains the same: Run-away overtime spending by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and what the grand jury thinks needs to be done to reign it in. The report — titled “What’s Up with Excessive Overtime?” — starts off with an official expression of bureaucratic incredulity that the sheriff started the year already projected to spend $9 million more on overtime than the $10 million that was initially projected: i.e., $19 million in overtime cost.
The grand jury expressed mystification at these numbers, noting that, as the sheriff’s overtime and general fund allocations have increased dramatically, the number of jail bookings has dropped over time, as has the number miles driven by deputies’ vehicles. Likewise, the jail population has dropped — from 1,010 in 2013 to 750 last year.
Grand juries are made up of civic-minded citizens looking for problems they believe need fixing. With the county supervisors looking at a menu of excruciating budget cuts they need to make next week — millions of dollars and hundreds of employees — the grand jury report brings to the surface many of the budgetary and political tensions that have been roiling between the sheriff and the county supervisors for some time now. Currently, the Sheriff’s Office consumes 33 percent of the county’s general fund; two years ago, it was 24 percent. That $9 million in unanticipated overtime, the grand jury noted, will have to come out of other departments, already feeling the pinch, that also rely upon the general fund…