Deschutes County has spent more than it budgeted on employee overtime four of the past five years, with the largest overspending occurring in 2023, a January internal audit found.

A combination of factors, including staffing shortages, made the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office the biggest culprit of overtime spending last year.

The county overspent on employee overtime by an estimated $870,000 during fiscal year 2023, which ran from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, with the vast majority of the overspending occurring at the sheriff’s office.

“Given the significant influence the Sheriff’s Office has toward the County’s overtime budget coupled with the emergency nature of their responsibilities, it is no surprise that 84% of the discrepancy is attributable to the Sheriff’s Office,” the audit said.

Sgt. Jason Wall, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said there has been a significant need for overtime lately due to higher-than-normal employee vacancy rates.

“At this time, we have approximately a 15% vacancy rate at the Sheriff’s Office, historically that number has been closer to 5%,” he wrote in an email.

Wall said law enforcement response for a single call in December cost the county an estimated $25,000 in overtime, which was nearly half of the total estimated cost for the call of $57,000.

The sheriff’s office has been criticized for runaway spending in recent months and years. In an investigation of public employee salaries in September, The Bulletin found that among Bend-area public personnel, sheriff’s office employees make up the majority of overtime earners.

Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair said at a Friday county audit committee meeting that the more frequently employees leave the sheriff’s office, the more impactful overspending on employee overtime becomes.

Overtime overspending will be factored in as the county approaches this year’s budget season, Adair told The Bulletin on Monday.

The overtime and compensatory time audit, which occurred from September through November, involved a review of policies, employee bargaining agreements and applicable laws along with staff interviews and data analysis.

“In this instance, we didn’t see any cases of abuse,” said Elizabeth Pape, the county’s internal auditor.

However, risks exist, she said.

The risk of overspending on overtime this year doesn’t appear to be much different than previous years. As of January, around $2.1 million of the county’s $2.88 million budgeted for employee overtime has been spent, according to county documents.

The audit’s findings led to eight recommendations in four areas. The county auditors recommended increased transparency in documenting personnel expenses so that overtime spending is clearly disclosed, which happened almost immediately. Auditors also recommended creating clearer documentation for payroll decisions, which arose out of the discovery that salaried 911 supervisors were receiving overtime pay when they are technically exempt from being paid overtime. However, that was a response to staffing shortages, Pape said.

Auditors also recommended eliminating unnecessary rules related to compensatory time and keeping permissions within the county’s time-keeping system up-to-date when employees depart.

A full copy of the Deschutes County overtime and compensatory time audit is available at bendbulletin.us/overtime-audit.

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