Sheriff will lay off three deputies due to budget squeeze

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Three more sheriff's deputies will be laid off at the end of December, a move sure to further voter disillusionment with a sales tax hike that was supposed to provide more deputies.

Sheriff Ken Irwin said Wednesday he hoped an improved economy and federal grant requests would come through to avoid the cutbacks.

But county commissioners say Irwin was warned earlier this year about a looming deficit that stood at $700,000. They said it worsened through the year but that Irwin didn't act soon enough to avoid the year-end layoffs.

"Had he done it progressively through 2010, it would not have had such a dire consequence for 2011," Commissioner Mike Leita said Wednesday.

Commissioners said they did not know about the layoffs until contacted by news media. Commissioners set budgets for the various departments, but leave details on spending to elected officials who are department heads.

"I try to be a realist," Irwin said. "I know the financial fix we are in. I keep trying to find a way to put cops on the road to provide service. A lot of times it has worked; sometimes it doesn't."

The president of the deputies union, the Yakima County Law Enforcement Officers Guild, called the news bewildering.

"I think it is fair to say we are stunned," said Deputy Eric Wolfe, "given the public's clear intention of having the sheriff's office funded properly."

In addition to losing three deputies, Irwin said he'll demote a lieutenant to a sergeant and four sergeants to deputies to reduce costs. He also will lay off one clerk and leave two other clerk positions vacant.

The layoffs will leave the sheriff's office with 57 commissioned officers. Sheriff's staff peaked at 68 commissioned officers in 2007 and 2008 after voters agreed in 2004 to approve a three-tenths-of-a-cent sales tax increase for the sheriff, courts, prosecutor, defense counsel and the county clerk.

Irwin had promised to
add 14 positions in the 2004
campaign that led to app-roval of the higher tax. His office had 63 commissioned officers that year.

Irwin's share of the sales tax this year was more than $1.2 million in addition to his general fund budget of more than $8.7 million. Irwin's 2011 budget was cut by $87,000.

The sales tax fund is maintained separately from the general fund and managed by the departments that receive the tax revenue.

The sheriff's office has seen an increase in overall revenue of 19 percent since voters approved the sales tax increase. But expenses have risen by 31 percent .

Expenses are rising in part because deputies' wages have gone up by 5 percent annually under a four-year contract settlement approved by county commissioners. That agreement expires next month.

Leita said Irwin's budget was overextended going into 2010, a fact that was relayed to the sheriff when the county's financial services division -- located in the commissioners' office -- began helping the sheriff's office with its budget. Irwin requested the help after the retirement of Undersheriff Dan Garcia, who had been managing the sheriff's budget.

To try and address the problem, Irwin tapped a number of sources: unspent dollars from prior budget years, some leftover money in the sales tax fund and excess funds in an equipment replacement account, Leita said.

But Leita said commissioners, county Budget Director Craig Warner and Warner's staff cautioned Irwin that those were all one-time funding sources that would be used up in 2010 and wouldn't be available for 2011.

"He decided to go all in with the hope that 2011 would be a brighter day," Leita said. "Now he is having to reconcile 2011 with layoffs because he has no more significant one-time money."

Irwin agreed Wednesday he had hoped things would turn around and was banking on another federal grant, in addition to the Community-Oriented Policing grant that will allow him to save three deputy positions next year, to sustain his operation next year.

Without the COPS grant, Irwin would have had to lay off six deputies.