With a $6 million budget deficit going into the final stretch of the fiscal year, the Sheriffโs Department has indefinitely postponed training academies for deputies and corrections officers, but Pima Countyโs new sheriff says public safety wonโt be compromised.
The Pima County Sheriffโs Department is close to being fully staffed, and while Sheriff Mark Napier is concerned about the departmentโs finances, heโs confident his deputies can keep the streets safe.
โMy commanders tell me weโre in pretty good shape in the field and corrections, but Iโm sure that we always want and put to use more bodies than we have,โ said Napier, who began his term on the first of the year. โRight now weโre expending a lot of overtime at the jail, because theyโre a little short there, but overall I think weโre doing fine.โ
Once some of the immediate changes Napier plans to make take effect, heโll re-evaluate the budget to decide when the academies will resume.
โI donโt want to kick that can too far down the road, because then you start getting so far behind that itโs impossible to catch up,โ Napier said. โIt can snowball after awhile if you delay it too much.โ
Despite the 9,000 square miles within the departmentโs jurisdiction, deputy response times to 911 calls have remained consistent over the past year, with high-priority call response averaging five minutes, Napier said, adding that the department has been keeping a close eye on the situation.
In a Dec. 19 memo, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry provided 10 years of Sheriffโs Department budget, expenditure and revenue history to demonstrate that the departmentโs budget hasnโt been underfunded by the Board of Supervisors.
During that time, the departmentโs budget increased from $114 million to $147 million, but this yearโs projected deficit is the largest to date. In five of the last 10 years, the department has produced deficits ranging from $1.5 million to $4.7 million.
โFrom my standpoint, all of this stuff that has currently popped up would have been easily foreseen six to nine months ago,โ Napier said. โWe should have seen this coming and should have made some preparatory steps in this budget cycle right after July 1 to prevent us from getting so far into the projected red.โ
Huckelberryโs projection put this yearโs deficit at $5,692,758, but Napier said that number isnโt set in stone.
โItโs a number thatโs in flux based on things weโre doing daily to try to mitigate the problem,โ he said. โWeโre not sitting on our hands, weโre doing things all the time.โ
Decreasing staffing levels at the command level is first on his list and has already been implemented.
The chief of staff and chief deputy positions were both vacant when Napier took office, and as he said prior to the election, he wonโt be filling them just yet.
โWeโre not giving up the positions, theyโll sit on the sideline so that in better times we can refill these positions if we feel like theyโre needed and we have the fiscal ability to fund them,โ Napier said.
The administrative staff in the sheriffโs office has also been reduced to one person, who was brought in from another part of the department, after Napier eliminated two administrative positions that were costing the department more than $150,000 in annual salaries.
โWeโre really trying to โ and itโs a philosophical thing from my part โ to start from the top down,โ he said.
โWe always start at the bottom and weโre always asking people actually delivering service to do more with less. It sends a disheartening message to the line-level people. They need to see us absorb some of the cuts, too.โ
In addition, the department will be moving to three bureau chiefs from the existing four.
Napier doesnโt know yet how the reorganization will work, but there will be some combination in command of the operations, investigations, administrative and corrections bureaus.
All three positions will be part of a competitive selection process that Napier hopes to have done by the end of the month, with all the current bureau chiefs reapplying for their jobs and competing against any of the nine department captains who want to apply.
โI talked during my campaign about needing to do a cultural reset in the department, and thatโs what weโre doing,โ Napier said. โFor many department employees, their confidence in the executive leadership team has been shaken.โ
Other ways that Napier is looking to curb the budget deficit will be reducing on-call pay and take-home vehicles, which in some situations were used to inappropriately supplement income, he said.
โSome ancillary staff have take-home vehicles that were more perks than operational necessity, and on-call pay was given to a lot of people in the department that really donโt have on-call responsibilities, so weโre going to be reeling some of that in,โ he said.
Napier has also asked his command staff to control overtime, which he says has gotten out of hand, as it was used to loosely compensate employees who hadnโt seen raises in years.
โDiving in, thereโs a great sense of excitement in the department,โ Napier said of his first week, which he acknowledged had a few bumps.
โThereโs also some anxiety, because in the career life of every single person in this department, theyโve known two people: Clarence Dupnik and Chris Nanos (former sheriffs). So they donโt know what to expect, but thereโs this great sense of excitement that thereโs new opportunity and that things are going to happen.โ
