From Tillamook County Sheriff Joshua Brown
I want to thank you for your continued support and many messages of encouragement I have received since our last post. We are very fortunate to have a community that supports its Sheriff’s Office Deputies and the work that they do. I also appreciate our BOCC liaison, Commissioner Mary Faith Bell, for her work on helping us confirm what I believe is a viable solution to this budget conflict, without cutting currently funded Deputy positions, while still balancing the budget.
In the proposed 4.6 million dollar Board Of County Commission annex building fund, there is a proposed 1.8 million dollars that originated from the General Fund. I will be proposing that the dollar amount that is being proposed to be removed from the Sheriff’s Office budget (by way of cutting 6.25 Deputy positions) could simply be moved back into the General Fund, and then into the contingency fund, to cover any shortages that may occur. This would keep the Sheriff’s Office budget intact without affecting any other county department or proposed projects.
It is my hope that the rest of the budget committee, made up of the Treasurer, three County Commissioners and the three civilian board members, will also see this as a viable solution for balancing the budget without sacrificing Deputy positions.
Since being elected Sheriff, it has been a priority of mine to fill vacant positions that have existed for years at TCSO. It was something I inherited as Sheriff and it something I wanted to rectify. At that time, it was a very difficult recruiting phase for law enforcement agencies nationwide. But, we began creating recruitment marketing and messaging, hosting hiring events and made changes to reduce the costs, and improve the efficiency, of our hiring process. This included streamlining required testing and background investigations, and also the process of making conditional offers to qualified candidates.
Those efforts have begun to payoff and we currently have candidates in the background process, only to now be facing proposed cuts that would remove deputy positions from our budget. Attrition is a reality in law enforcement and without vacant positions, we are not able to actively recruit for those expected to retire or that have accepted other better-paying positions.
Being understaffed has put a heavy burden on our deputies and civilian employees as they step-up to cover shifts and increase their workload to provide a continuity of quality service to Tillamook County. From July 1, 2022, to February 28, 2023, TCSO has incurred more than 6000 overtime hours due to staffing shortages, and we are on track to incur 9000 total overtime hours for fiscal year 22-23. Those overtime hours are costly in more ways than just dollars. Those hours represent additional hours that our staff must be away from their family and civilian lives – causing additional stressors to an already stressful job.
Calls for Service to the Sheriff’s Office are up, criminal caseloads keep rising, the population of Tillamook County has increased, and tourism is at an all-time high. Recent legislation has also mandated more responsibilities and duties for your Sheriff’s Office to perform.
However, besides for the addition of grant funded positions, which we have worked hard to obtain and keep, TCSO essentially has the same staffing level it has had for the past two decades. Eliminating already funded Deputy positions will be devastating to our ability to be proactive and keep up with these continuing increases to calls for service and community needs.
I feel very lucky to have such an amazing staff working for the Sheriff’s Office. They have a passion and belief in what they do, and the community they do it for. They have been willing to work those extra hours on top of their normal work schedule, while also being some of the lowest paid law enforcement officers in Tillamook County. But this shouldn’t have to continue this way.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, at 9:30am, I will be on the Tillamook Today radio program on KTIL and will be further discussing this unfortunate budgetary situation. Please tune in for more details and developments.
