Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s 2026 Overtime Audit Presented to Board of Supervisors
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - The Santa Barbara County Supervisors are going to take a closer look at overtime costs in the sheriff's department.
Overtime costs are consistently exceeding the budget of $10 million... with overtime rising from $11 million in 2018 up to over $20 million in the last fiscal year.
The auditors’ representative began Tuesday's presentation by acknowledging challenges beyond the sheriff’s department’s control, and clarified that this study was simply observing the department's budget.
The report also showed 29 employees were so-called "high earners"... receiving more compensation in overtime than their base salaries.
Sheriff Bill Brown cited staffing shortages as a primary problem, and reported successful experimental efforts at avoiding overtime miscalculations.
“At the end of the day, you do control my budget,” said Sheriff Brown at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. “And so if you decide that you want to cut my budget by $10 million or $15 million, we will work within that budget to the extent that we can. I could do it. But it's going to result in things that neither you nor your constituents will be happy with.”
The Board Of Supervisors approved a new plan demanding that the Sheriff’s Office conduct a thorough review of its time card policies, and will now look at the sheriff's overtime every month.
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