WARREN — The Trumbull County Auditor’s Office warned county commissioners that spending in the sheriff’s office should be closely scrutinized, or it could face a more than $3 million budget shortfall at year’s end.

Much of the projected excess spending in the sheriff’s office is in its budget for employees, and line items such as the Public Employee Retirement System, the jail workers and hospitalization, commissioners were informed Wednesday during their weekly workshop meeting.

The sheriff’s office employees and PERS line items are projected to have a combined shortfall of $820,627.62 by year’s end, if spending trends continue as they have during the first half of the year.

Its budget in these two line items is $3.1 million for employees, with 58 percent already spent; and $247,957.12 in PERS, with 129 percent already spent.

The jail’s shortfall in these same areas are projected to be $1,912,123.32.

The hospitalization shortfall in the sheriff’s office is projected to be $86,947.82. Its budget was $896,126, with 54 percent already expended. The jail’s hospitalization shortfall is projected to $476,593. Its budget was set at $936,101.23, with 70 percent of that already spent.

BE AWARE NOW

Christy Sostaric, an accountant in the Trumbull County Auditor’s office, told Commissioners Denny Malloy and Mauro Cantalamessa that the auditor’s office wants the commissioners to be aware of the projections now. Sostaric said the commissioners were already informed of the possible shortfalls.

Commissioner Niki Frenchko does not attend the weekly workshops with the other two commissioners. She holds a separate workshop with department heads.

After the meeting, however, Frenchko maintained that the county is in this position because the commissioners’ office does not have a budget director / finance officer or a county administrator.

“The auditor’s office has been giving the other commissioners their proposed budgets and they (the other commissioners) have been rubber-stamping them,” Frenchko said. “The commissioners are responsible for appropriation. It has been done this way for years. The (other) commissioners are not doing their statutory duties.”

“Now we are going to have to clean this up,” she said.

NO RELIEF FUNDS

Sostaric noted the sheriff’s office faced similar shortfalls in 2020, 2021 and 2022, but the county was able to fill the gaps using pandemic relief funds in 2020 and in 2021. It used American Rescue Plan Act funds in 2022.

“We could have balanced the sheriff’s budget without these, but it was good they were available,” she said. “These funds only could have been used for very specific uses.”

These funds, however, will not be available at the end of this year. Pandemic relief funds are no longer available and the commissioners have prioritized using the remaining ARPA funds on other projects this year.

Cantalamessa said use of these emergency funds never was intended to be ongoing.

Sostaric said the county traditionally has been able to cover shortfalls in its departments and offices by transferring money from areas that at year’s end have unspent money available.

Malloy said former Trumbull County Auditor Adrian Biviano had warned him there may be concerns about the sheriff’s office budget. “We have a half year to address this,” Malloy said.

OVERTIME

Human Resources Director Alexandra DeVengencie-Bush noted that it appears much of the projected overspending is due to the department having to pay overtime due to personnel shortfalls.

Major Tony Villanueva said the jail is already short of corrections officers. “It has been a revolving door,” he said.

Cantalamessa said the commissioners already attempted to address the projected shortfalls in the sheriff department through budget negotiations.

“The lion’s share comes from personnel,” Cantalamessa said. “A more favorable contract that allows us to hire and retain more correction officers and road deputies will reduce the amount of overtime we are paying. We then will begin to start chipping away at this.”

The commissioners plan to hold an executive session today to review a fact-finder’s report addressing the next contract with sheriff’s employees.

“Our goal is to get the sheriff department and jail fully staffed so overtime will not be used as much,” Cantalamessa said. “Ultimately, it will reduce costs.”

Malloy emphasized the commissioners also learned that the sheriff’s office also has not been paid an estimated $400,000 for work deputies did for various county departments.

“Now that we know that this money was not accounted for, we know the shortfall will not be as great,” Malloy said. “We will continue to watch the budget.”

rsmith@tribtoday.com