Carson City Sheriff's Office could carry the bulk of job layoffs
Submitted by editor on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 2:26pm
With as many as 30 employees targeted for Carson City government layoffs, the equivalent of 23 of those positions may come from the sheriff's office.
The impact of a 10 percent across the board cut, if directed by the Carson City Board of Supervisors, would have the equivalent impact of 23 positions, said Sheriff Kenny Furlong. There are 146 employees of the sheriff's office. The annual budget is about $15.6 million.
The cuts would be needed for Carson City to bridge a $7.9 million budget deficit. If approved by the Board of Supervisors, the layoffs could begin later this spring.
The reason behind the cuts would be contractually driven by bargaining unions and their contracts, Furlong said.
The task the sheriff's office has been handed is to reduce the overall budget.
In many cases people are finger-pointing at small things that, in reality, have minor impacts on the overall budget, Furlong said.
As an example, the sheriff's office can reduce its electric bill, but turning out lights doesn't reduce the savings for the kind of cuts that are being asked, Furlong said.
"It doesn't have a significant impact on the reality. That reality is we are 90 percent salary and benefits based. You cannot reduce the overall budget without impacting employees.
"Ten percent of the sheriff's office budget is the equivalent to every single operating expense that we have. In other words, without impacting employees, you have to not allow everyone to come to work. Because once they arrive at work that is when your operating expenses begin," Furlong said.
"If you are 90 percent salary-based with a 10 percent cut, you cannot eliminate 10 percent of your budget without impacting employees," he said.
The affects of such cuts are still being assessed. The sheriff's office is looking at a reduction of what it currently has, 13 law enforcement positions, that could be spread over the jail and patrol division.
Potential cuts could mean less officers on the street, he said.
"We are trying to balance the impact to provide the best service we can. Clearly it is going to be difficult," Furlong said. "We will prioritize and land on our feet."
Some reorganization will take place in order to achieve what the board may vote on, Furlong said. The department doesn't have the absolute direction of the board yet, but it will be more clear with the given instructions when the board meets on March 18.
There are 146 sheriff's office employees, with 20 of those assigned to the 911 center. The call center could have an layoff impact of three employees, Furlong said. The bulk of Carson City's law enforcement is assigned to the patrol division, while the detention center carries about 30 percent of the officers.
"Because the department is very lean — meaning there is not a lot of redundancy of assignments in most cases — when you look at reducing staffing, you must also look at reducing services or at least delaying them. For example, what may have taken a day may take a couple to get done."
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