The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday to require the Sheriff’s Office to make monthly reports on its overtime use after years of the department exceeding its annual overtime budget.

The Board of Supervisors met in Santa Maria to hear a report on the status of the Sheriff’s Office’s use of overtime and discuss how to curb the cost.

The supervisors approved more frequent reports from the Sheriff’s Office for the next six months.

They also asked staff to research whether the board can appoint an inspector general to oversee the office and recommended audits of overtime use for the five departments that use it the most.

The board approved the report from the Sheriff’s Office and the recommendations from the staff on a 4-0 vote. Supervisor Steve Lavagnino left early for a personal emergency.

The Sheriff’s Office has been in deficit for at least 10 years to the tune of millions of dollars. Last year, the department overspent its budget by $20 million.

The Sheriff’s Office has already used half of its overtime budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which ends June 30, and is on track to go over its allotment by $9 million by July.

Overtime costs from the Sheriff’s Office have been an ongoing issue for the county, which has used general fund money to fill the department’s deficits.

The rising costs have become a greater issue for the county as it faces an economic downturn throughout the next five years.

Second District Supervisor Laura Capps said she has heard from people when out doing errands, asking about how much the county spends on the department.

“People are really concerned about what’s happening (with) the oversight (and) spending so much money, because they also see that we’re facing such budget woes,” Capps said.

Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann described the Sheriff’s Office overtime use as a “runaway system.”

She said that if the sheriff had to pay for those costs out of his own budget, they would be more tightly managed.

“The current system really rewards overspending while diverting resources from other critical county services, including public safety, social programs and infrastructure,” Hartmann said.

She added that other counties have created an inspector general to oversee their sheriff’s offices and recommended that Santa Barbara County do the same.

“It is absolutely clear that (an inspector general) cannot micromanage operations,” Hartmann said, “but they can identify waste, duplication or misallocation of resources and provide recommendations to the board.”

Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson said he would support an audit of the Sheriff’s Office’s current overtime practices, but said it should be done for more county departments.

He recommended the top five departments to see whether other departments have issues with overtime.

“I think that if this is something that we state is wrong in the Sheriff’s Department, it needs to be wrong across the board,” Nelson said.

Nelson asked that the audit of the Sheriff’s Office be presented to the board by October.

During his comments to the board, Sheriff Bill Brown said the use of overtime by his department is complicated and long-standing, and not easy to solve.

“It takes considerable time, effort, energy and patience to do so,” Brown said.

He argued that the overtime budget is an “arbitrary figure” that is put into the budget. He added that it is not related to the number of hours worked during the previous year.

The sheriff told the board that his department is still dealing with staff shortages, and overtime hours are the only way to fill those gaps. He added that reducing overtime hours would “compromise staff, inmate and public safety.”

He also said that overtime in his department is down 13.4% compared to this point last year.

Undersheriff Brad Welch said the Sheriff’s Office has worked with the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association to reduce the number of mandatory hours.

One of the department’s changes is reducing the number of required overtime hours for staff from 14 hours every four months to four hours every four months.  

The Sheriff’s Office also changed its rules for training sessions. Instead of employees going to eight-hour training sessions on their days off, they will now be able to choose a shorter four-hour block during their normal shift.