Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s 2026 Overtime Audit Presented to Board of Supervisors
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - An audit on the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office was reported to the Board of Supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting.
The auditors’ representative began their presentation acknowledging challenges beyond the Sheriff’s Department’s control, and clarified that this study was by the numbers, simply observing what occurred to the department’s budget.
The study was specifically focused on Overtime coding on employee timesheets.
The report’s findings included patterns of systemic misuse of leave hours and overtime, approximately 30 employees considered high earners, chronic staffing issues, and a negative budget impact — for a fourth year out of five cited.
Operational impact has seen a pronounced rise in overtime costs, exceeding the budget of $10 million with increases from $11 million in 2018 up to over $20 million in the last year.
After hearing the report the Board of Supervisors approved a new plan demanding that the Sheriff’s Office conduct a thorough review of their time card policies, and report regularly attempts at reducing these financial impacts.
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