Shelby County Sheriff's Office budget: Dispute over cuts vs. county pay raises deepens

As budget season is beginning to come to a fast close, there are still disagreements amongst county officials on the proposed budget.

One dispute between Shelby County government and the Shelby County Sheriff's Office continued last week during Shelby County Board of Commissioners committee meetings.

The dispute stems from the repurposing of funding for 441 positions within SCSO. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris's proposed budget removed funding for positions within Shelby County government that have sat vacant for 18 months or longer.

Overall, as of May, there were 1,300 vacant positions across county government and 708 of those positions are within SCSO. In the mayor's proposed budget, 441 positions have had their funding repurposed, but the sheriff will still have more than 250 vacant funded positions.

SCSO has gone on the defensive during commission meetings, even creating a public YouTube video outlining the issue.

Alicia Lindsey, chief administrative officer for the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, said they have sat down with the mayor's administration twice now, and neither of those talks have been "productive."

The sheriff's department claims it has grounds to sue the county government because of the unauthorized "cuts." Mike Galey, Shelby County Government's County Technical Advisory Service consultant, has been in email communication with SCSO regarding the cuts.

CTAS said in an email that the SCSO's budget cannot be reduced, regardless of the reason without the Sheriff's consent.

But, Shelby County government administration officials said that there have been no cuts to the SCSO budget, and it has increased. The adopted budget for fiscal year 2024 was about $197 million. For fiscal year 2025, the proposed budget is over $200 million.

The back and forth between SCSO and Shelby County government has been tense and confusing at times during meetings. During a committee meeting Wednesday, Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. proposed a budget amendment that would "restore" the funding to the 441 positions cut.

The cost of restoring the funding tops $20 million and would increase SCSO's budget to $222 million. Because the funds for the various positions that were eliminated from SCSO's budget were not removed from their overall budget, the department will see an increase in its budget.

Budget proposal gives county-wide raises using vacancy savings

In order to give out raises to all county employees, Harris said that removing the restricted funding towards positions that have sat vacant for over 18 months would allow the budget to be balanced without a tax increase. Harris emphasized that he is open to other ideas that would create a balanced budget with raises for county employees, except for a tax increase.

"I'm not gonna bring a budget that calls for a tax increase for a service, that is not going to happen," Harris said.

According to a document from the Shelby County Budget and Fiscal Planning Department, there are some positions that have never been filled within county government. The longest vacant position within SCSO has sat unfilled for almost 10 years.

Lindsey said that the department is set to hire roughly 115 new employees in the near future.

Salary restriction for SCSO lowered

Part of the proposed budget also includes the lowering of restricted salary funds to SCSO. Salary restrictions are put in place to account for expected savings from vacancies across departments.

According to Lindsey, SCSO's previous budget had a salary restriction of $31.4 million. With the proposed budget, the salary restriction has been lowered to $8.8 million.

Michael Thompson, Director of Budget and Fiscal Planning for Shelby County government, said the county has increased SCSO's ability to hire because they have reduced the salary restriction in order to give raises to employees within SCSO.

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Thompson said the administration looked at the salary restrictions year over year and saw that historically those funds have not been used so there was an opportunity to repurpose them.

"This is just a way of normalizing your budget because you didn't have a normal budget when you've got 700 vacancies out there. That's not normal," Director of Finance and Administration Audrey Tipton said.

The numbers from the previous budget and the proposed budget for personnel have stayed relatively the same year over year for SCSO. Lindsey said that even though they have stayed "flat" for SCSO, looking at the line items like fringe benefits shows the "true cut" in the budget.

The fiscal year 2025 budget repurposes funding from the 441 positions, which cost roughly $31 million. The total funding for the full 708 vacant positions within SCSO is $49 million.

Thompson said while there has been the removal of the 441 positions, SCSO would still have around 250 vacant positions within its budget.

The department has set a goal of hiring 200 correctional deputies and 75 patrol officers for the upcoming year.

If the department were to recruit over the number of budgeted employees, it would only take a budget amendment later on in the year to get the funding reallocated because there have been no cuts to the sheriff's budget.

Shelby County Chief Administrative Officer Harold B. Collins said that SCSO has been in a net negative of 37% for personnel hiring.

Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at (901) 484-6225, [email protected] and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter @BrookeMuckerman.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County Sheriff's Office continues to fight against proposed cuts