DuPage sheriff: No cuts to ‘stretched’ staff, please
Saying personnel resources already are “stretched,” DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba is urging county board members to spare his department from having to make staff cuts next year.
In fact, Zaruba is calling on the county board to adopt a 2012 budget that fully funds the sheriff department’s authorized full-time head count of 545 employees.
“My staffing is stretched but manageable at its current strength,” Zaruba told members of the board’s judicial and public safety committee this week. “Understanding that additional staffing is out of the question, I’ll continue to do my best with what you’ve provided to me.”
This year, Zaruba was forced to cut costs within the department to raise the roughly $350,000 needed to pay for seven positions that weren’t included in the county’s current budget.
“I implore you to fully fund these positions in 2012,” Zaruba said to county board members.
County officials are in the early stages of putting together a proposed 2012 spending plan, which board Chairman Dan Cronin will present in September. The county board has until Nov. 30 to approve a final draft.
Paul Fichtner, chairman of the board’s finance committee, said he’s expecting that there will be “an interesting discussion” on the sheriff’s funding request in the coming months.
“We’re analyzing everybody’s requests right now,” Fichtner said.
One way the sheriff’s department was able to reduce costs this year was through the retirement of 35 people, who are being replaced with less senior employees making lower salaries. Meanwhile, a proposal to raise certain fees could generate an estimated $300,000 in new revenue.
But Zaruba said additional retirements aren’t predicted for next year. And Fichtner says there are several new expenses for the county, including an estimated $400,000 cost associated with the recently approved union contract for 180 deputies and detectives. As part of their first union contract, the officers will receive 2 percent raises each of the next four years. In addition, most received either a $500 bonus or a 2 percent step increase.
Zaruba didn’t talk about the cost of the labor contract during his budget presentation. He only said it’s “limiting the flexibility of first-line supervisors to efficiently manage their subordinates.”
“However,” he added, “I look upon this as a manageable internal challenge that will not affect public safety.”