After years of rising overtime costs within the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, the county approved a new employee agreement that it hopes will lower its expenses.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors this week unanimously approved a new agreement with the Santa Barbara County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association that limits how much overtime the Sheriff’s Office can use in a year and changes overtime eligibility.
The agreement also outlines pay increases for staff over the next two years.
Sheriff’s Office overtime costs have been an ongoing issue for the county. The department has exceeded its annual overtime budget by millions of dollars over multiple years.
The department was on track to exceed its budget by $19 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year despite having a budget of $10 million for overtime, according to a report from the Santa Barbara County Civil Grand Jury.
The report identified multiple drivers of costs, including the operation of the county’s two jails, inadequate management training, and the previous agreement with the DSA.
The memorandum of understanding between the county and the DSA outlines employee wages, hours and conditions for employment.
The MOU applies to 513 employees across the Sheriff’s Office, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and the District Attorney’s Office.
The agreement is valid until July 2, 2028. The previous agreement expired on June 21.
Under the new pact, the Sheriff’s Office will be limited to 1,300 hours of overtime a year. The MOU also limits compulsory overtime to 120 hours a year.
Kristine Schmidt, director of human resources, said that under the new agreement, paid sick leave and compensatory time will no longer be counted as base hours.
Schmidt said that even though federal law requires the county to pay overtime after 40 hours, it is not required to count sick or vacation leave as hours worked.
“If someone works additional hours, that will still be paid, but not at a premium for overtime,” she said. “So, that will help control costs.”
The use of sick leave to qualify for overtime wages was one of the issues highlighted by the grand jury report earlier this year.
Under the old MOU guidelines, deputies could qualify for overtime pay even if they worked less than 80 hours in a two-week pay period using a method it called “pyramiding.”
Previously, an employee working a regular Monday-to-Friday schedule could use some of their leave days for Monday and Tuesday instead of working. They could then work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at their regular rate.
The same employee would then work on Saturday and Sunday as overtime because, under the old rules, they already worked five days. The result is that they are paid five days at their regular rate and two at time-and-a-half, the report noted.
Additionally, the employee still would gain more leave time across all the time they were paid, including their overtime hours. The additional leave time would let the worker continue using it for more overtime in the future.
The county Auditor-Controller’s Office found during a review of the Sheriff’s Office’s timecards that this was common, with 35.7% of timecards examined during that period showing this practice.
A county staff report stated that making those changes is expected to “reduce the growth of compensatory time liabilities and improve long-term management of overtime costs.”
In addition to the new overtime rules, the contract will provide a 3% raise as of the contract’s start date, along with a 1% equity raise. The contract also includes another 3% raise in July 2027.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to return on Sept. 1 to discuss funding the raises with $812,000 it had set aside during its annual budget talks.
Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson thanked the DSA staff and the county HR department for putting together the deal.
“I think this is again a hard contract, but I think a necessary contract for our county to move forward with controlling costs and overtime issues,” Nelson said.
