BREAKING: Indian River County Administrator Calls Sheriff Budget Increases “Unstable” and “Unsustainable.”
Sheriff Flowers was disappointed even though agency received third straight historical budget increase.
At the July 10th Indian River County Budget Workshop before the County Commissioners, the County Administrator, John Titkanich, presented the amended budget proposal for fiscal year 2024-2025. The county is mandated that it funds the constitutional offices. Those would include the Supervisor of Elections, Tax Collector, Clerk of the Court, Property Appraiser and the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office (IRCSO). Of those offices, it was noted by Mr. Titkanich that the IRCSO will absorb over 53% of the General Fund within the budget for 2024-2025. Immediately, he commented, “This year, the Sheriff’s recommended request of $4.8 million for the sheriff’s office is substantially less than his initial request of $9.8 million. As we’ve discussed individually, and I have also had conversations with the Sheriff, the county would not be able to continue to support such significant increases in the future. Increases at these levels are financially unstable and will place pressure on the county in terms of millage rate increases.”
Sheriff Flowers responded at the podium. He shared that he informed all of his captains to cut 20% from their department budgets based on the new constraints. With a forlorn manner, he unashamedly added, “I appreciate we came to an agreement, but I can tell you, the number we have doesn’t give us everything we need to accomplish all of our goals. We’re going to make it work. We will get through it this year.”
The comment by Mr. Titkanich was documented by his budget recommendation letter of July 3rd to the Board of County Commissioners. In his budget analysis he wrote of the county’s effort putting public safety “at the forefront of services provided” for residents. After describing the 6.5% increase in the IRCSO budget, he unequivocally stated, “Staff supports the Sheriff’s amended budget given the importance of providing adequate resources for the vital function of law enforcement, and his efforts in reducing the original request are appreciated. Notwithstanding the foregoing, continued increases in the Sheriff’s budget at the levels of the past few fiscal years are fiscally unsustainable.”
A central question at last month’s Sheriff’s debate was the concern over the IRCSO budget. According to agency figures, it has ballooned from $57 million in fiscal year 2020-2021 to $83 million projected by IRCSO for 2024-2025 following the recent negotiation with the county. During the debate, Sheriff Flowers flatly stated his previous three budgets were not challenged, that he received budget approval from the County Budget Office, and, all budgets were “unanimously passed by a 5 - 0 vote” from the Board of County Commission.
However, approval didn’t come without intense negotiations. His debate statement about not having a problem with any of his budget proposals is not true. After the 2022-2023 budget negotiation, County Administrator, Jason Brown, described the IRCSO budget as having “historical” increases. Mr. Brown expressed that the County and the Sheriff had reached a compromise and he wasn’t too happy about the settlement. Reached for comment, candidate for Sheriff, Keith Touchberry, said, “[Flowers] is part of a culture that needs to change. Their approach to the budget is always to ask for more money than is needed, negotiate to their acceptable amount, and return nothing at the end of the year.”
Indeed, Sheriff Flowers has not shied away from putting pressure on the county. At that 2022-2023 budget workshop, the Sheriff received the historical increase of $7.2 million after asking for $11.9 million extra. Administrator Brown said it surpassed a previous record high increase of $4.5 million. He said, “Going back on a dollar basis … that was about 15 years ago.”
At that workshop, Commissioner, Susan Adams, asked Sheriff Flowers if he had a five year plan so the county could corroborate with the IRCSO on future spending. She noted inflation and the need to prepare for an economic downturn. Sheriff Flowers referred to a new hire “Casey, the new planner,” who was in attendance. He advised they were working on a budget forecast. “Casey” is Casey Holmgren who has since transferred within the IRCSO to become the only grant writer.
The following year for the 2023-2024 budget workshop, Sheriff Flowers brought with him an audience of deputies. The local deputy union treasurer, Kathryn Gibson, followed Sheriff Flowers with prepared remarks. She was followed by three additional deputies in leadership. All of the deputies were demanding the Commission approve dollars for pay increases to be able to compete with other counties. Each deputy cited how young deputies who received a best-in-class “Triple A accreditation certificate” through training at the IRCSO were leaving for higher paying positions in Martin County and elsewhere.
Commissioner, Deryl Loar reminded the deputies that the budget was approved increasing by $5.9 million, a second historical amount. As well, Commissioner Adams shared in that meeting concerning the 2023-2024 budget, that the IRCSO consumed 54% of the General Fund leaving only 46% leftover for the rest of the county services. Commissioner Adams noted that, as a constitutional officer, Sheriff Flowers can spend that pot of money “as he sees fit.”
Reached for comment Milo Thornton said, “I have known that the current Sheriff has a huge problem with being a good steward of the good hard working taxpayers money for a long time. I have left command meetings frustrated. He’d spend funds that we did not have and never had a plan in place.”
Mr. Thornton continued, “In a recent conversation with a deputy, he stated, ‘I am not concerned with driving a Tahoe for work, I rather be able to purchase one for my family.’ The current administration needs to stop spending millions of taxpayer’s dollars on toys and pay our employees.”
At the 2024-2025 budget workshop on Wednesday, Commissioner Loar asked the same question of the Sheriff that Commissioner Adams asked two years earlier. What is the a plan in place if the tax revenues experience a downturn next year? Sheriff Flowers said they would cut operations if necessary. He added, “We are in that position right now. We are crunching our operations budget to make sure our employees get paid.”
“Great. That’s what I wanted to hear,” replied Commissioner Loar. He added, “Men and Women are most important. Cars and other things can wait.”
Yet, a Sheriff’s budget is allocated with the calculations for staffing needs to be fully funded. The Sheriff is receiving approved dollars for all sworn employees, civilian staff, as well as newly created positions and staff. The 2024-2025 proposal asks for 16 new positions. If those positions go unfilled, the money is still available. It can be given back to the county, or, more likely, it is spent elsewhere. On paper, the budget reads like the IRCSO puts 75% into deputy pay as the Sheriff claimed at the debate. In reality, the accounting ledger is not entirely legible.
Budget years end in September. According to public records, at the end of last month, the IRCSO had 45 vacancies made up of 28 sworn positions and 17 civilian openings. At the end of September 2021, there were 36 fully funded vacancies. In 2022, 60 fully funded openings remained, and in 2023, there were 57 fully funded, but unfilled positions. According to Chief Touchberry at the debate, in those three budget years, just the 102 “sworn positions” accounted for about $5.7 million. Yet, just over $500,000 was returned to the county. There were an additional 61 fully funded civilian vacancies over those same three years. Are fully funded vacancies a budgeting technique of Sheriff Flowers to pool dollars for other things?
Milo Thornton remarked, “ When I declared in April 2023, there were 75 openings. You have to understand, law enforcement is expensive. It requires discipline to spend our taxpayers money efficiently and effectively.”
Advancing the same conclusions since the debate, Chief Touchberry added, “The Sheriff’s comment to the Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday that they were not meeting his budgetary needs was adversarial and designed to set the stage for future blame.”
The projected blame would eventually comeback to the Board of County Commission according to Administrator Titkanich due to the “pressure on the county in terms of millage rate increases.”
Will Sheriff Flowers ask the commission to raise property taxes if he cannot get spending under control? If he wants to continue in this manner, he has other options through fundraising. Mr. Thornton added, “The IRCSO has one grant writer. In Saint Lucie, they have a team responsible for reoccurring grants worth $4 million annually. I oversee a budget of $100 million at [Indian River State College] as a member of their board of trustees. I have always looked for other funding sources. As leaders, it is our responsibility to relieve the financial burdens on the taxpayer.”
Sheriff Flowers said he would be back to “ask for the future” since his entire budget was not approved for fiscal year 2024-2025. However, will voters let him?
Asking for more, receiving less and returning nothing is a very basic and standard practice in government. If Mr Touchberry doesn’t know that then I am concerned about his viability as a candidate for the Sheriff’s office.