Maricopa Negotiates Budget Cuts
After months of fighting with budget officials and the Board of Supervisors over cuts to the agency’s $228 million budget, Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott, an adviser to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, said negotiations with county officials had been productive. Report from AZCentral.com.
“Unless I’ve totally misread this thing, I think we’re extremely close to an agreement, and public safety will not be affected,” Hendershott said. The Sheriff’s Office could take a $7.6 million cut to its general fund, which primarily pays for law-enforcement patrol, and a $10.1 million cut to its detention fund, which covers jail operations, memos show. Officials are still negotiating the budget and said these are tentative cuts. The memos indicate that public safety would not be jeopardized by the following cuts, a goal of both sides:
• Eliminate vacant civilian positions to save $2.3 million. It is unclear how many positions could be cut and how many are now filled.
• Discontinue vehicle rentals to save $411,000. The rentals are used for investigations, picking up abused animals and transporting equipment.
• Reduce costs for aviation, ammunition, uniforms, supplies, education and travel to save about $1.4 million.
• Reduce overtime for patrol officers, administrative staff and other employees to save $1.4 million.
• Reduce extradition and travel to save $500,000.
• Eliminate vacant positions to save $3 million; this cut would not affect detention officers.
• Change the jails’ food-distribution system to save $926,000.
Hendershott said budget officials would trim the general fund by increasing the number of furlough days to 15 for all staff to save $3.6 million, cutting four sworn but vacant captain positions to save $626,000 and reducing repairs and maintenance by $500,000 for technology programs. On the detention side, Hendershott said budget officials would increase the number of furlough days to 13 to save $6.2 million.
There is more background and detail in the full article at AZCentral.com.
AZ Maricopa County, Arizona, Economic Issues, Personnel Issues