Most departments in the Athens-Clarke County government operated at or under budget for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, but key public safety areas were in the red according to figures from county staff.
The Clarke County Sheriff's Office saw the biggest overage, $1.59 million over its budget. ACC Police was in the red by $1.38 million, and Fire and Emergency Services came in $512,000 over budget.
The county’s Animal Services department also went slightly over budget, coming up about $20,000 short.
Overtime drives cost overruns
Most of the extra spending is driven by overtime costs caused by staffing shortages in those three departments. According to county documents, those three areas – Sheriff, police, and fire – accounted for 91% of the county’s total overtime costs.
Those overtime costs, in turn, have been driven by a large number of unfilled public safety positions, although an increase in medical care costs at the county jail also contributed to the overage in the Sheriff’s Office.
Short staffing contributes to the problem
All three local departments had a large number of job vacancies at the beginning of the fiscal year in July 2023. ACC Police saw significant success in reducing their number of open positions, going from 46 open jobs to just nine over the course of the year.
While the police department saw a major uptick in hiring, the Sheriff’s Office continues to be plagued with a number of open positions. That office had 52 openings in July 2023 and filled only five of those positions over the course of the fiscal year.
ACC Fire and Emergency Services had 35 openings in July 2023 and filled just two of those openings.
When public safety agencies are understaffed, it falls to the existing employees to make up for the caps by working overtime. That in turn can lead to a vicious cycle, where employees burned out by excessive overtime demands leave their positions for ones that require less overtime, creating more positions to be covered by the employees who remain.
Staffing presents special problems for Sheriff's Office
Part of the hiring challenge for the Sheriff’s Office is likely a pay discrepancy between Sheriff’s deputies and ACC police officers. Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams has implored commissioners in recent years to pay his deputies the same salaries as ACCPD officers. Williams contends that his deputies undergo the same training and certification as police officers and should receive the same pay. County officials however argue that in Clarke County, Sheriff’s Deputies are primarily responsible for jailhouse and court security and serving warrants, rather than more traditional day-to-day law enforcement.
Speaking to WUGA earlier this year, Sheriff Williams said that he had lost several deputies to better-paying jobs with ACCPD and other area law enforcement agencies.
Athens-Clarke County commissioners agreed in this year’s county budget to commission a salary study this year to examine possible pay increases in the Sheriff’s office.
County-created fund for overtime is tapped out
As part of last year’s budget, the Mayor and Commission created a $1.8 million fund to cover extra overtime and pay for salary and benefits for positions that are filled. County staff say that the fund has been exhausted, with all of the money going to overtime compensation.
Commissioners are expected to discuss the issue at an agenda-setting meeting on Tuesday, with a vote to spend some $3.5 million to address the problem expected in early September.
