In an attempt to reduce costs in a financially-strapped county,
the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department managed to save over
$300,000 from its budget by cutting down on overtime costs and
implementing a more efficient management philosophy.
In an attempt to reduce costs in a financially-strapped county, the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department managed to save over $300,000 from its budget by cutting down on overtime costs and implementing a more efficient management philosophy.
By constantly looking at scheduling, the department whittled $340,000 out of its $2.8 million annual budget, said Sheriff Lt. Pat Turturici.
“If a watch commander called in sick we would substitute with a seasoned deputy instead of calling in another watch commander,” he said. “That way it gave the deputies experience and saved the county money also.”
Part of the department’s enthusiastic penny-pinching came during the Hollister Independence Rally, where it decreased its overtime expenditure by two-thirds but was still able to double the amount of arrests made, according to Sheriff Curtis Hill.
The department spent $23,000 in overtime for the 2003 rally, but only spent about $6,000 this year, Hill said.
The department worked more efficiently with the California Highway Patrol and utilized its paid reserves, which helped diminish the cost and still provide adequate public safety, he said.
By coupling reserves with the sworn deputies on patrol, the $16 an hour the department paid for their service created a tremendous saving compared to the approximately $70 an hour deputies would receive for overtime, he said.
“We focused more on calls for service and responding to those calls, and left the city to their enforcement posture,” Hill said. “We have a very good reserves component… we just put the pencil to the paper with the idea of doing the same amount with less.”
The department increased its arrests from four last year to eight this year, and citations issued from eight to 16 by encouraging the deputies to be more aggressive, Turturici said. The majority of arrests made were drunk driving, drunk in public and warrant arrests, he said.
“Deputies are working harder,” he said. “They’re out there pounding the pavement and making more contacts.”
Hill has been adamant in the past about utilizing his deputies’ time and energy, and his department’s budget only for his jurisdiction – the unincorporated areas of the county – and not having to use department resources to pay for an event that takes place within the city.
“I decided I wasn’t going to hit tax-payers on the county side, because why should they have to pay for a party?” Hill said.
By “scrimping and scraping,” and deploying a normal amount of deputies for patrol instead of scheduling extra, Hill was able to cut back on about five or six deputies’ overtime pay, he said.
While the department’s saving isn’t monumental in the grand scheme of things, County Supervisor Reb Monaco gave Hill “kudos” for doing the job without racking up a huge bill.
“Any time you save money it helps,” he said. “We didn’t have any problems, so obviously he’s on top of things for what he was doing.”
Erin Musgrave can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 336 or at
em*******@fr***********.com
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