The Sheriff’s Office consistently spends millions of dollars in overtime due to staffing shortages, and the Santa Barbara County Human Resources Department is starting a program to provide financial incentives to current employees to recruit new custody deputies.
The county Board of Supervisors approved a plan to pay $3,000 bonuses as part of a 6-month pilot program specifically targeting hires for that “difficult-to-fill” position.
There have been fewer applicants during recent recruitments for custody deputies, and more applicants don’t make it through the hiring process because of failed background checks or psychological evaluations, said Yvonne Torres, human resources assistant director.
More people are leaving the position – including retirements, terminations, promotions and leaving the organization for other jobs – than are being hired, Torres said.
Referral hires stay longer than job board hires, and are seen as a good return on investment, Torres said.
“It’s almost like a buddy system,” and candidates know ahead of time what they’re getting into, she added.
The Sheriff’s Office created recruitment videos that play in local movie theaters and gas stations, held a first-responder career fair, and has made other attempts to boost the applicant pool, but “the best recruiters are our current employees,” Sheriff Bill Brown said.
They’re “the people who know the job, who know people who are out in the community who would be a good fit for us,” he said. “We’re excited to try this and see how this works.”
The Human Resources Department proposed a $1,200 bonus with $400 paid out when an eligible referred employee begins county employment, and $800 paid when the new hire completes a probationary period or 12 months of employment.
If the pilot program goes well, the county could use the model for other difficult-to-fill positions, Torres said.
Supervisor Bob Nelson fought for a higher amount to make it a bigger incentive, and pointed out the huge cost of overtime that partially results from staffing shortages.
“In the scheme of things, it’s budget dust,” he said of a potential $5,000 employee referral bonus.
The Sheriff’s Office spent more than $12 million in overtime costs last year, and this year, it’s estimated to be $17 million, according to an October financial presentation.
Nelson asked Brown how much the Sheriff’s Office anticipates spending in overtime this year.
“I can’t give you that answer off the top of my head but it’s going to be somewhat higher than last year because of the large number of vacancies,” Brown said.
Supervisor Joan Hartmann proposed increasing the bonus amount to $3,000, and the supervisors unanimously approved that amount for a 6-month pilot program.
“When I talk to people, generally they want to know their money is spent wisely, and the fact that we’re spending it on overtime and we’re burning people out is not the best way to do things, so if we’re spending money trying to fix that problem, I’m fine with that,” Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said.
Santa Barbara County opened the new Northern Branch Jail near Santa Maria last year, which substantially increased the Sheriff’s Office custody division operating costs and the amount of custody staff since there are now two jail facilities.
The Sheriff’s Office is now spending more money on custody operations than it does on law enforcement services, with an estimated $80.8 million cost in the current annual budget.
The number of people in custody is lower than pre-pandemic numbers, with 428 people in the Main Jail near Santa Barbara and 346 people in the Northern Branch Jail as of Monday, according to a department dashboard.
About 78% of those people were unsentenced, meaning their court process isn’t finished, and 90% of them were being held on a felony charge versus a misdemeanor charge.
A 2018 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury report on mandatory overtime in the department, which had been in effect for most of the previous 15 years, stated: “For over a decade, substantial overtime budgets and contingency overtime budget requests have been regularly approved by the Board of Supervisors, a budgetary trend that appears to provide few incentives to address this chronic problem.”
