Trending Topics

Mich. county sheriff millions over budget because of jail OT

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office is on track to bust its budget by an estimated $12 million this year

By Eric D. Lawrence
Detroit Free Press

DETROIT, Mich. — The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office is on track to bust its budget by an estimated $12 million this year, according to the most recent figures from the department.

The culprit, according to Sheriff Benny Napoleon and Cpl. Brian Earle, president of the Wayne County Deputy Sheriff’s Association? Excessive overtime at Wayne County’s jails.

But bringing overtime costs in line is a tough prospect, they said. A combination of low starting pay, difficulty attracting good candidates, and a hiring process that traditionally has not brought in enough new hires to offset attrition combine to keep officer numbers below what is needed.

Related: Snyder picks team to investigate Wayne County finances

“We are severely shorthanded. The county will acknowledge that we are about 200 people short. I think we are about 300 people short,” Napoleon said. “I cannot control how many prisoners come into the jail and how many go out.”

The sheriff’s office, which has a $145-million budget this year, regularly requires deputies to work overtime whether they want to or not because of court-mandated deputy-to-inmate staffing levels at its facilities. Both Napoleon and Earle said the forced overtime lowers morale, and such long hours, according to Napoleon, can mean officers are not as alert as they need to be.

Related: State review of Wayne County finances moving ‘fast’

And then there’s the salary issue. Napoleon says his officers are “grossly underpaid,” which is a drag on hiring and retention.

Wayne County pays its new hires in corrections less than other nearby counties, officials said. Wayne County’s starting rate per year is $28,284, plus a $1,200 annual retention bonus, compared with $33,300 in Macomb County, $35,046 in Livingston County and $36,569 in Lenawee County, according to 2014 information provided by the sheriff’s office, which did not include Oakland County.

Wayne County Commissioner Raymond Basham, D-Taylor, has challenged sheriff’s representatives on audit issues in the past, saying, “We all continue to work to find more efficiencies in government.”

But Basham said this week that “we need to pay a living wage to entry-level sheriff’s (deputies).”

Although salary differences exist among the counties, it’s not clear any changes are on the horizon. The state is investigating the county’s finances, and County Executive Warren Evans has said he wants a consent agreement in place as he tries to implement a plan to cut $230 million over four years.

Lloyd Jackson, a spokesman for Evans, however, said the county is in negotiations with the union and there is a possibility that starting salaries could be increased. He said that Wayne County is competitive with other counties when benefits are included.

“I understand that there’s no money, but it’s cheaper to hire and raise” base pay than pay so much overtime, Earle said, noting that horrible conditions at the jails hurt officer retention.

Overtime in the sheriff’s office, most of whose officers work in the jails, has been an issue for years. A draft consent agreement prepared by the staff of former county Executive Robert Ficano and updated in 2014 said the average overtime cost per bargaining unit member was $20,000 per year, helping cause sheriff’s expenditures to exceed budgeted funds by $26 million in 2012 and almost $30 million in 2013.

The Free Press reported in 2013 on a corporal in the jail who earned an extra $121,000 in one year in overtime.

Cost projections during the year can also fluctuate significantly. The $12-million deficit figure the sheriff’s office provided for this year is a drop from the $15.4-million projection that officials provided to a Wayne County Commission committee a couple of weeks ago.

Last month, the sheriff’s office and county teamed up on an effort to attract more potential jailers — officials said they were looking to hire 75-90 people — by waiving a $50 testing fee at an event at Cass Tech High School in Detroit. According to the sheriff’s office, there are more than 100 vacant positions in the jails, which are budgeted for about 667 officers, including those in command positions.

Napoleon, who praised the Evans administration’s efforts to work with the sheriff’s office, said the event was “the most aggressive recruiting effort that I’ve seen since I’ve been sheriff.”

Evans, whose office is responsible for hiring, noted in a press release that new officers would allow the county to reduce overtime costs, which “is good for our general operations budget and the taxpayers of Wayne County.”

At a recent Ways and Means Committee meeting, Wayne County commissioners declined to move the sheriff’s office’s deficit-elimination plan forward to the full commission for a vote.

Commissioner Joseph Palamara, D-Grosse Ile Township, provided something of an explanation as fellow Commissioner Richard LeBlanc, D-Westland, made a motion to reject the plan.

“Considering the deficit-elimination plan consisted of ‘giving us more money,’ I can understand,” Palamara said.

In a conversation later, LeBlanc noted that he could not recall the commission accepting a deficit-elimination plan from the sheriff’s office. Other departments that have submitted such documents and had them accepted have tended to lay out actual plans to reduce their deficits, LeBlanc noted.

LeBlanc, however, sounded quite familiar with the explanations for the budget deficits that have been provided, reciting many of those mentioned by the sheriff.

“There’s a whole bunch to it,” LeBlanc said. “I know that there’s big challenges.”

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU