Brevard sheriff pulls request to boost budget by another $1.76 million, warns of future money crunch
Just a week after Brevard County Manager Frank Abbate submitted his 2022-23 budget plan to county commissioners, Sheriff Wayne Ivey told Abbate that the Brevard County Sheriff's Office's share was not enough. Ivey wanted more money.
Then he changed his mind.
Now, as the sheriff has backed off his request for more funding for the 2022-23 budget year, he seems to be laying the groundwork for what could be a big ask in the next budget year. That's when Ivey indicated he would need significantly more money coming into the Brevard County Sheriff's Office budget — or else he would have to cut as many as 200 jobs at the BCSO. That's because BCSO expenses are expected to outpace revenue.
The latest BCSO budget issue started a little over a week ago, when Ivey alerted Abbate that the vendors for medical services and food services at the Brevard County Jail Complex in Sharpes were planning to dramatically hike their prices in the next round of contracts.
On July 22, Ivey emailed Abbate, saying he needed $1.765 million more to cover increases in the costs of paying the county jail's health care and food service providers.
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Abbate, in turn, told county commissioners in an email July 25 that the sheriff's request "will have a significant impact on the upcoming and future county budgets" because it would be "a reoccurring cost" — one that would have to be dealt with every year.
But, within a day of Abbate sending that email, the sheriff told Abbate that he was looking at other ways to cover the requests of the two contractors, and it appeared he would not need the additional $1.765 million after all.
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Not a 'loose budget'
That reversal is a relief to County Commissioner Rita Pritchett, who said "it would have been difficult to try to meet the need" of an increase in the sheriff's budget, especially at this late hour — after Abbate and his staff already put together the budget plan and submitted it to commissioners.
"Typically, we don't have a very loose budget," in which changes like this can be easily made, Pritchett said.
County Commissioner Curt Smith noted that, if Ivey had pursued asking for more money after Abbate prepared his budget plan, "it would have thrown a monkey wrench into the whole process."
Smith noted that Abbate and others on the county staff already have "spent the last three months putting this budget together."
This year, Smith said, the budgeting process is especially precarious.
"We're all dealing with a really unstable financial situation," with an unusually high inflation rate, plus the threat of a recession.
On July 19, commissioners voted 4-0 to give initial approval to the proposed property tax rates contained in Abbate's $1.83 billion budget plan. The tax rates all stayed within the Brevard County's voter-approved "charter cap," detailing how much the county can increase property tax revenue from year to year.
County commissioners will hold two budget hearings in September before voting on final approval of the budget and property tax rates.
Had Ivey moved forward with his request for an additional $1.765 million, it could have meant Abbate would have had to recommend to county commissioners taking money away from other county departments and programs, and moving the money to the sheriff's budget. Another option would have been for Abbate to consider asking county commissioners if they want to raise the proposed general fund tax rate, potentially busting the charter cap.
In a July 27 statement to FLORIDA TODAY, Brevard County Sheriff's Office spokesman Tod Goodyear said: "Sheriff Wayne Ivey and the staff of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office immediately notified the county manager and his team of the potential impacts" of the jail health services and food services contracts, "and, over the course of the past several days, worked closely in negotiations with the respective vendors."
Goodyear said "it appears all financial considerations have been resolved without impacting the pending county budget status" for the 2022-23 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
'Unforeseen market condition changes'
Days earlier, the issue seemed more dire.
Ivey submitted to Abbate a $1.765 million "request for change to requested budget," detailing the increased costs of medical care and food service contracts involving the Brevard County Jail Complex.
In his request, Ivey said that his vendor for jail health care services — YesCare, formerly known as Corizon Health Inc. — provided notice of proposed rate increases, "which reflect the current market conditions for medical, dental and mental health personnel positions, that have increased through the pandemic and reflect changes in existing labor conditions that were not present during the initial entry into the agreement executed in February of 2020."
Ivey said "unforeseen external market condition changes" led to an additional ask by YesCare of $1.5 million for the 2022-23 budget year "in order to maintain appropriate health care services for the Brevard County Jail Complex inmate population."
Ivey cited "the significant increase in YesCare’s service costs and employee salaries that provide essential health care services to inmates at the county jail."
The second cost increase involves the jail's food service vendor, Aramark Correctional Services LLC.
Ivey said Aramark provided the BCSO notice of an increase in the price per meal, effective Aug. 1. The increase notice creates an additional need of $265,000 for Aramark during the 2022-23 budget year "in order to maintain essential food services for the Brevard County Jail Complex inmate population."
Ivey said Aramark "has capped service increases for the last two fiscal years. however, like YesCare, has experienced significant increases in operational costs with the current economic environment, to include record-high inflation, coupled with the inability to recruit and retain a labor force."
Ivey said the Aramark contract contains a “material adverse change” clause under which, "if conditions change due to causes beyond Aramark’s control — including but not limited to increases in food, fuel, equipment, utilities, supply and labor costs; and other operational costs, or other unforeseen external market conditions — then Aramark shall give the sheriff written notice of such increase."
Kicking the can down the road
County Commissioner John Tobia said he was pleased to see Ivey worked out the issue without seeking more money from the county budget.
"Sheriff Wayne Ivey was able to pull a rabbit out of his hat at the 11th hour, and negotiated down an almost $2 million increase" in health care and food service contract costs, Tobia said.
In Ivey's request for the budget increase that he subsequently pulled back, the sheriff said "the contractual service financial increases" for medical services and food services "exceed reasonable projections completed during the original and amended … budget preparation and submission process" for the 2022-23 budget year.
But Ivey warned county commissioners in his 79-page budget submission for 2022-23, dated July 7, that money is tight.
He said in the budget memo that he might have to cut staff during the subsequent 2023-24 budget year that begins Oct. 1, 2023, if things don't change by then. He said that could amount to as many as 200 positions, as BCSO expenses are expected to outpace revenues in the coming budget years, including by $7.46 million in 2023-24.
Ivey said inflation has created challenges for his budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, and will continue to impact the Brevard County Sheriff's Office in fiscal 2023-24 and beyond.
"The growing costs of services and operations, coupled with the revenue-generation constraints of the revenue charter provision, will continue to force the elimination of significant essential services and resources" in the 2023-24 budget year and beyond, Ivey said in his message to commissioners. "This will negatively impact our ability to provide the current level of support to the citizens of Brevard County."
Among the revenue-generation constraints Ivey was alluding to is a provision of the Brevard County Charter that limits the annual increase in how much money the county can raise through property taxes to 3% or the annual change in the consumer price index — whichever is lower — not including tax revenue from new construction.
County commissioners can override the charter cap with a "supermajority" vote of at least four of the five commissioners, if they declare a "critical need."
BCSO budget categories
On July 7, Ivey formally submitted a proposed 2022-23 BCSO budget to county commissioners. His proposal included these components:
Law enforcement budget from the county's general fund: $52.30 million, which is up $1.63 million or 3.22% from the previous year's budget.
Law enforcement budget from a separate municipal service taxing unit funding source: $28.46 million, which is up $203,846 or 0.72%.
County jail complex: $51.44 million, which is up $2.76 million or 5.67%.
Judicial operations: $7.36 million, which is up $451,213 or 6.53%.
Animal services: $4.40 million, which is up $218,749 or 5.23%.
Contracted services: $10.93 million, which is up $913,857 or 9.12%. This category includes the services BCSO provides to Brevard Public Schools, the Canaveral Port Authority and the city of Cape Canaveral, which those entities pay for. So this category has no direct impact on county property taxes.
Counting a carry-forward amount of $11.51 million from previous budget year, Ivey's total budget request to the county commissioners totaled $166.40 million, up $6.18 million or 3.86% from the previous year.
And that's the budget amount for BCSO that Abbate submitted on July 15 to county commissioners.
The carry-forward in the proposed BCSO budget represents money that is in a special County Commission-created public safety fund that stemmed from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act money Brevard County received in 2020.
The BCSO plans to use $4.90 million of that money in the 2022-23 budget year for facility maintenance projects; $3.48 million for vehicle purchases; and $3.13 million for other capital-related projects.
As early as a Feb. 17 County Commission budget workshop, Abbate alerted commissioners that they could be seeing a request from BCSO to increase its general fund budget by $4.4 million in 2022-23, compared with the previous year. Abbate cited increases in salaries and health insurance costs as two of the factors.
Abbate was only discussing the general fund in that presentation. So that $4.4 million increase would exclude money that comes from the law enforcement municipal service taxing unit, as well as money paid to BCSO by the three other entities the Sheriff's Office has contracts with for its services.
Multitude of concerns
In his July 7 budget submission to county commissioners, Ivey cited a number of concerns. These include:
Rising personnel-related costs. Ivey said BCSO personnel costs — including for such things as salaries, payments into the Florida Retirement System and health care costs — are projected to rise 6.51% in the 2022-23 budget year to $123.98 million.
Significant increases in other operating costs, including for equipment, fuel and liability insurance. The cost for fuel, for example, is projected at $3.92 million in 2022-23 — up $1.58 million 67.39% from the cost in 2021-22.
Overtime costs tied to having more than 130 personnel vacancies. Ivey said the increased use of overtime "will ultimately result in more vacancies, as employees become exhausted, and continue to seek employment elsewhere with higher employment incentives, salaries and benefits."
The annual pay of $44,636 for starting BCSO sheriff's deputies being lower than for starting law enforcement officers in a number of neighboring counties, as well as Brevard cities. Ivey said "the lower, non-competitive starting pay has created significant challenges in both recruitment and retention of highly qualified candidates."
The cost of recruitment and retention of deputies. Among the categories of recruitment costs are background checks, training and certification. Ivey said that "each time a sworn position is vacated, an expense of approximately $15,000 is incurred to recruit,
vet, train and prepare the candidate to perform their sworn duties."The BCSO's staff level being at least 60 deputies under its target having two deputies per 1,000 residents in the jurisdictions the agency covers.
Increased costs for vehicle repairs and maintenance.
The need for facility upgrades, including heating/ventilation/air-conditioning system repairs or replacements, fence repairs, electrical and plumbing maintenance and upgrades, and generators for emergency operations support.
The running out of public safety fund money after the 2022-23 budget year, eliminating a source for money to spend on capital projects in 2023-24 and beyond.
Even with these challenges, Ivey said: "The proposed budget follows the guidelines relating to the safety and well-being of our citizens, and focuses on the recruitment and retention of qualified personnel, a critical necessity to ensure the capability to keep our citizens safe and secure."
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bydaveberman.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Change of plans: Brevard sheriff finds way to deal with costs
