BUDGET MESSAGE - Sun Sentinel

Broward County Sheriff’s OfficeFiscal Year 2013/2014 Proposed BudgetBUDGET MESSAGE FROM THE SHERIFFSTRENGTHENING OUR PUBLIC SAFETY MISSIONAs our new administration at the Broward Sheriff’s Office embarks on a new day, BSO’s overall mission remains constant:protecting public safety. To achieve our goals, we begin a new era marked by improved community cooperation with ourpartners and residents, greater fiscal transparency, and a positive cultural change within our agency to enhance public safetyfor all Broward County residents and visitors. Our ultimate goal is simple: help BSO – already the largest fully-accreditedSheriff’s office in the nation – truly become the most effective, efficient and respected Sheriff’s office in the nation.INHERITED CHALLENGESOur administration inherited many challenges in January 2013, including a structural budget deficit, sagging employeemorale, a lack of long-term vision, and rising crime rates. In a very short time, we have already begun to address theseproblems. Some changes have been easy to initiate, but others have proven much more challenging.We immediately extended an invitation to the County Auditor to perform a full audit of BSO. This independent auditincludes granting the County Auditor prompt access to all documents and records within BSO. This unprecedented level ofcooperation highlights our commitment to transparency and accountability. Initial review of BSO’s financial recordsindicates the prior administration depleted roughly one-third of the agency’s “roll-over” funds – traditionally used forongoing operational needs of the agency – in golden parachute payments made to departing employees in the final days of theformer administration. Despite these concerns, we made the necessary adjustments to presumably finish FY 12-13 in theblack.A multi-million dollar Law Enforcement Trust Fund (LETF) spending spree by the former Sheriff last year also resulted inthe fund – which routinely maintains an average balance of $6-8 million or more – being virtually depleted by the day thenew administration took office. Public safety operational needs must always be the first priority in the allocation of LETF.We are immediately addressing the problems highlighted by the prior administration’s lack of any clear procedures for thedistribution of discretionary LETF monies. BSO is creating an open, online, and fair grant application process for theallocation of the discretionary portion of BSO’s LETF to community organizations and projects which meet the priorities ofthis agency and best serve the needs of our community. Additionally, this process enables the County Commission to makerecommendations to BSO, when LETF funding becomes available.Like the Board of County Commissioners, and nearly every other employer in our community, BSO is experiencingsignificantly rising health insurance costs for our employees. Further, the agency’s existing labor union contracts (whichexpire September 30, 2015) guarantee the employees the same quality of health care with no increase in their rates or copays.These multi-year deals, which the former Sheriff entered into during 2012, shifts the burden of paying for rising healthinsurance costs entirely upon the agency (and the taxpayers). To effectively address health insurance cost containment, BSOis using an open, fair and competitive RLI process to ensure the best business deal for the agency while ensuring quality carefor our employees.While we do not know what the future of our community’s tax base will be for the next two years, all of BSO’s existing laborcontracts guarantee employees a 2% cost of living raise for FY13-14 and another 2% cost of living raise for FY14-15 (note:COLA increases are in addition to seniority step increases). Those contracts must be honored, but again come with an impactupon our budget. Especially as we intend to treat all agency employees alike (including unrepresented) with 2% annualCOLA increases until the expiration of the current labor contracts.The final obstacle BSO is facing involves an existing, long-term city contract for public safety services under which thisagency operates as a significant financial loss each year. We are exploring all options to address this situation. In othercities, some existing contracts appear to provide additional services without added cost, ensuring additional financialdisadvantages to BSO. These will all be addressed in negotiations as the existing BSO/City contracts come up for renewal toensure all cities pay their entire fair share for BSO services.5