Multnomah County is pulling funds from multiple departments and a contingency reserve account to pay for higher than expected security costs this year, including a new personal security detail for Chair Jessica Vega Pederson.
The Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved the shift in funds, totaling $2.2 million. That money will pay for Inter-Con Security patrols at county facilities like the District Attorney’s Office, alarm systems and a new personal security detail for the chair. The majority of the budget adjustment was due to the county underestimating security costs for this fiscal year, officials said.
“When we started working with Inter-Con, we reran our staffing models and what not to see, ‘do we have the right amount of money for patrol, alarms and our security costs across the organization?” Deputy Chief Operating Officer Travis Graves told the board. “We thought we did, and as it turned out, we did not.”…