To: Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Sheriff’s Office
Staff Name and Phone Number: Connie Newton, 565-8884
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Amend the Sheriff’s Department Allocation List
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Adopt a Resolution to amend the Sheriff’s position allocation list to add one Senior Account Clerk, effective December 6, 2022. No additional funding is required.
end
Executive Summary:
The Sheriff is requesting approval of a Resolution to amend the Adopted Department Allocation List to address critical staffing needs in the Sheriff’s Purchasing Unit. The change is needed to address workload issues, adapt to modern business practices, and to operate in a more effective manner. This requested position’s ongoing costs will be absorbed in the Sheriff’s Office budget by redirecting existing, ongoing General Fund appropriations budgeted for morgue operational costs that will be less than originally anticipated.
Discussion:
The Sheriff’s Office is requesting 1.0 Senior Account Clerk to support ongoing workload demands of the Purchasing Unit (“Unit”). The Sheriff’s Purchasing Unit has been behind in their essential duties for several months. Invoices are not being paid on time, essential equipment procurement has been delayed, and other duties have been set aside altogether to keep staff focused on the most critical tasks and backlogs. Several attempts to address the issues without adding staff (e.g. reducing tasks, schedule changes, procedural and operational changes) with no avail. An outside audit by the County’s Auditor confirmed the significance of the issues the Sheriff’s Office has been dealing with in Sheriff’s Purchasing. The recent audit performed by the County Auditor identified findings in accounts payable delays, concerning backlogs created when employees in this small Unit are absent, a need for essential procedures, a need for updated and modernized processes, and implementation of other best practices to reduce risk. The audit report is estimated to be available to the Board in January, after the Sheriff’s responses to the findings are reviewed and incorporated into the report. The Sheriff is requesting the allocation now, before the audit is broadly available, because of the pressing backlog of unpaid invoices and because one of only two staff assigned to accounts payable is on extended leave, leaving one staff member to handle the already backlogged workload.
The workload demands of the Purchasing Unit include critical operational and fiscal services, such as: goods and services ordering, accounts payable functions, managing the Sheriff’s Cal-card program, which includes approximately 40 accounts, processing and distribution of USPS and inter-office correspondence, acceptance and delivery of goods, and labor contract required obligations to issue uniforms to staff (approximately 550 employees). The Purchasing Unit currently consists of three positions: an Administrative Aide, a Senior Storekeeper, and a Senior Account Clerk. The three distinct job classes in this small Unit results in each member having a full workload of distinct duties with no availability to provide back up when a Unit staff member is absent. Even when all staff are present, the Purchasing Unit is not keeping up with all of the primary responsibilities.
The Sheriff’s Purchasing Unit has two positions which are responsible for procurement, uniform issuance, and accounts payable, an Administrative Aide and Senior Account Clerk. These two positions entered over 25,000 expenditure transactions in FY 21-22. The payment of invoices takes precedence at the expense of other tasks because if vendors are not paid, they will not provide services, many of which are mandated (e.g., food, supplies, and care of inmates, autopsies, and body removal), and many of which will make it impossible for the Sheriff’s Office to provide mandated public safety services. Safety equipment for officers, rents, utilities, emergency response software and communication equipment, essential repairs for helicopter, boats, training equipment are a few examples of the thousands of items procured, received, and paid for by the Purchasing Unit. Furthermore, two of the labor contracts finalized in late FY 18-19 included new provisions that added approximately 300 new uniform items for sworn staff, which increased invoice processing workload in the Unit. Having another position available to complete time sensitive and critical fiscal workload will ensure vendors are paid on time, goods are ordered and routed to units in a timely fashion, and labor contract obligations are being properly administered.
The audit report cites a lack of relief coverage as a key finding, to ensure payment processing continues during employee absences. A lack of appropriate staff coverage impacts the Sheriff’s Office ability to complete mandated services, such as processing mail in accordance with laws, ensuring inmates supplies and services are procured in a timely fashion, and complying with provisions in employee labor agreements. The audit included other recommendations such as, modernizing processes, increasing backup fiscal documentation, and using more dual-person controls for cash handling. Implementation of these recommendations require additional staff. All these workload demands, coupled with the recommendations of the recent audit and the desire to improve, and modernize are driving this request to add a position to the Purchasing Unit at the level of Senior Account Clerk.
The Sheriff’s Office will be able to absorb the costs for this new position allocation without needing to request additional General Fund or contingencies. The Sheriff’s Office FY 22-23 Adopted Budget assumed $200,000 of its ongoing General Fund contribution capacity would be needed to cover property tax payments for the morgue facility being leased from the Chanate property owner. When the FY 22-23 budget was being finalized, the details for the morgue facility payments were unavailable at the time the budget was due for submission and estimates were used for the property tax liability. Based on updated information, only $10,000 of the budgeted $200,000 will be needed for property tax payments, allowing $190,000 of appropriations to be redirected to cover the costs of this new position. The redirected funds are part of the Sheriff’s existing, ongoing General Fund contribution and separate from one-time funds for the Public Health Lab and Morgue capital project.
Strategic Plan:
N/A
Prior Board Actions:
June 12, 2020 - 1.0 FTE Account Clerk II eliminated in the Fiscal Year 2020-21 Adopted Budget.
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 22-23 Adopted |
FY23-24 Projected |
FY 24-25 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
$77,333 |
$134,160 |
$139,526 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$77,333 |
$134,160 |
$139,526 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
$77,333 |
$134,160 |
$139,526 |
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
|
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$77,333 |
$134,160 |
$139,526 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
The Sheriff’s Office will be able to absorb the costs for this new position allocation without needing to request additional General Fund or contingencies. The Sheriff’s Office FY 22-23 Adopted Budget assumed $200,000 of its ongoing General Fund contribution capacity would be needed to cover property tax payments for the morgue facility being leased from the Chanate property owner. Based on updated information, only $10,000 of the budgeted $200,000 will be needed for property tax payments, allowing $190,000 of appropriations to be redirected to cover the costs of this new position. The Sheriff’s budget also includes $84,000 for morgue lease payments in FY 22-23, which are estimated to increase approximately $4,200, or 2%, per year. The lease payments are budgeted in a separate account and not part of the $200,000 budgeted for property tax payments. The redirected funds are part of the Sheriff’s existing, ongoing General Fund contribution and separate from one-time funds for the Public Health Lab and Morgue capital project. The FY 22-23 estimated position cost of $77,333 is prorated to reflect seven months of position costs and $5,000 of interfund expenses.
|
Staffing Impacts: |
|
|
|
|
Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
|
Senior Account Clerk (0403) |
$4,254 - $5,171 |
1.0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
Adding a Senior Account Clerk to the Sheriff’s Purchasing Unit will address the Purchasing Unit’s workload needs and provide the staffing levels needs to address audit findings in the recent audit report. The audit report is estimated to be available to the Board in mid-December, after the Sheriff’s responses to the findings are reviewed and incorporated into the report. The Senior Account Clerk can take on a portion of the general ordering and accounts payable workload, maintain the uniform issuance assignment and provide much needed relief coverage when staff are absent.
Attachments:
Resolution to Amend Sheriff’s FY 22-23 Department Allocation List
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
FY 22-23 Program Change Request - Senior Account Clerk