The Summit Board of County Commissioners asked Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons to attend its Sept. 15 work session to discuss his office’s 2026 budget.

FitzSimons said the letter he received stated the county is forecasting that the Sheriff’s Office will go over its 2026 budget by nearly $1 million. He said he does not think the county’s forecast, which estimates the Sheriff’s Office will be about $835,000 over budget, is entirely accurate. Undersheriff Peter Haynes spoke in more detail about issues the Sheriff’s Office had with the county’s accounting of vacancy rates and grant revenues and expenditures.

County finance director David Reynolds said most of the accounting sheets, like revenue or non-salary expenses, in the Sheriff’s Office budget forecast come directly from the office, but the salary and benefits calculations are done by county staff. Haynes said the Sheriff’s Office does not have issues with the county staff’s estimations of pay increases for the year, but it does take issue with county staff using a standard 5% vacancy rate.

Haynes said the Sheriff’s Office is nearly fully staffed, currently having a vacancy rate of 1-2%. He said the 5% “baked-in” vacancy rate the county uses in its estimations create issues because they do not reflect the reality of the Sheriff’s Office’s staffing. Haynes said the only way the Sheriff’s Office could meet its budget, if the county uses a 5% vacancy rate in its calculations, would be to increase the office’s actual vacancy rate to match.

The commissioners, county finance staff, Haynes and FitzSimons had some back-and-forth about the importance of the 5% vacancy rate in the salary estimations. Reynolds said the county uses the same vacancy rate when calculating salary cost estimations for all departments and offices. Before 2026, it used a 1% vacancy rate in its estimations. He said that the 5% figure was known throughout the 2026 budgeting process, though, and was part of the $14.2 million 2026 budget the commissioners approved for the Sheriff’s Office.

Commissioner Tamara Pogue said that commissioners give the Sheriff’s Office a budget amount — $14.2 million in 2025 — and it is up to FitzSimons and his staff to determine how to spend it. The Sheriff’s Office cut 13 positions at the start of the year to try to meet that budget, but Pogue said it seems like it may not have been enough.

“Whether it’s a 1% vacancy or a 5% vacancy doesn’t actually matter because you needed to forecast yourselves to get you to that budget number,” Pogue said to FitzSimons.

Commissioner Eric Mamula said he would like to discuss the 5% vacancy rate further with county staff but echoed Pogue’s point that $14.2 million is the figure the Sheriff’s Office needs to meet. He said the county wants to communicate with the Sheriff’s Office about the forecasted overage to prevent any “conflicts between our departments,” referencing a now-dismissed lawsuit the Sheriff’s Office filed against the county last year.

“I do not want to get to a point in 2027 where there is an overage and we get in the same pissing match that we did last year,” Mamula said. “That doesn’t look good for either of us.”

The Sheriff’s Office’s issues with grant revenues and expenditures had to do with two grants from which the Sheriff’s Office expects to receive more revenue than originally projected and three grants that the office now does not expect to be able to implement. 

With the grants the Sheriff’s Office can not realize, Haynes said, it has not spent money on relevant programs in anticipation of grant reimbursement, so in the Sheriff’s Office’s opinion, the losses in revenue will not affect the overage. Reynolds disagreed, saying there are not decreases in expenses from the losses of grants equal to the decreases in revenue.

Commissioner Nina Waters said the county staff will talk internally about the 5% vacancy rate and asked the Sheriff’s Office to create a plan to meet its budget figure. FitzSimons said his office would work with county staff and Mamula, who is the board’s representative with the Sheriff’s Office, and have a plan together “sooner than later.”