The Summit County government is working to reduce an operating deficit in its general fund ahead of final approval of the 2025 budget next week.

The Summit Board of County Commissioners is expected to vote on the final budget Tuesday, Dec. 10. General fund revenues in the draft 2025 budget total about $65.3 million. But expected expenditures have outpaced that, creating a deficit of about $1.2 million, according to a recent budget summary.

The draft 2025 budget estimates that the general fund will raise about half of its revenues, or about $32.5 million, through property taxes. Property appraisals in 2023 yielded substantial increases in property valuations and tax revenue in 2024 and future years, according to the draft budget.

The draft 2025 budget notes that the majority of county staff received an average annual merit increase of 3% and that about 20 positions had their salaries adjusted after a new wage survey found their pay to be “significantly below market.” It also notes recent increases to pay for Sheriff’s Office personnel.

When the commissioners discussed the budget with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office at a work session Tuesday, Nov. 19, county finance department staff said that the Sheriff’s Office accounts for some of the largest budget increases in recent years.

“How do we solve this deficit issue that we see in the general fund? We look for areas that have significant increases or other growth,” Summit County finance director David Reynolds said at that meeting. “That really led us to the Sheriff’s Office departments that have experienced some pretty substantial increases over the last year, both over the 2024 budget and prior years’ numbers.”

Commissioners ask Sheriff’s Office to propose cuts

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office budget request in the 2025 draft budget is an increase of about $3.7 million over the 2024 approved budget, Reynolds said at the Nov. 19 work session. That is after the Sheriff’s Office removed its fifth mental health co-responder team as well as a sergeant for that program, known as the System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team, or S.M.A.R.T, according to a staff memo.

Reynolds noted that the county has opted to use about $2.6 million in reserves from its Safety First Fund to cover a portion of the Sheriff’s Office increase, but it won’t be able to do that again next year.

Undersheriff Peter Haynes noted during the Nov. 19 work session that the $3.7 million number includes about $500,000 that is the result of changes to how donations to animal control are calculated into the budget. Reynolds agreed, noting that that would put the total increase in the Sheriff’s budget closer to $3.2 million.

Reynolds said at the work session that the increases at the Sheriff’s Office have been largely driven by significant wage and salary increases that were implemented after an informal wage and salary review in 2021 and a formal survey in 2023. New positions and the “step” program, which gives annual wage increases between 5-7% to certain law enforcement positions for their first five years of service and was implemented by the Sheriff’s Office in 2022, account for a much smaller portion of the increase in the Sheriff’s budget, he said.

During the work session, Commissioner Tamara Pogue noted that because of Summit County’s tourism economy, the county has to staff public safety departments to be prepared to respond during the county’s busiest periods — rather than based on population.

Pointing to the significant increases in the Sheriff’s Office budget in recent years, Commissioner Eric Mamula asked, “Where does it go from here?”

FitzSimons responded that the county may have to ask the voters to approve a ballot measure in coming years to raise more money for public safety.

“It’s certainly something that we recognize, that we’ve got to find another funding stream for public safety,” FitzSimons said at the work session. “We have to.”

Pogue asked that the Sheriff’s Office propose a way to help reduce about half of the general fund deficit, or about $600,000, but to do so without removing the fourth S.M.A.R.T. unit included in its 2025 draft budget.

“The challenge when you’re as large a portion of our budget as you are, for good reason, is that when we’re in a deficit year, we need you to be partners in helping us reduce that deficit,” Pogue said. “My preference would be that the strategy to do that not be elimination of the fourth S.M.A.R.T. team.”

Pogue said that once the Sheriff’s Office provides a proposal on how to help slash the deficit, the commissioners can “weigh whether or not the impacts are too great for the community.”

FitzSimons at the work session noted that the S.M.A.R.T. program has been a benefit to the community since it launched in 2019.

“This S.M.A.R.T. program benefits everybody — everybody in this community — not just the clients but I’m saying law enforcement, human services. You name it. It benefits fire departments. It benefits everybody,” FitzSimons said. “For us to roll back and do what we were doing in 2019, up until 2019, we would cripple our community. But forced to squeeze somewhere, that’s where I would be forced to squeeze.”

Sheriff’s Office to propose cuts

Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said in an email this week that his office plans to propose $640,000 in possible cost reductions, but it cannot provide additional details on those possible cuts at this time.

FitzSimons said that as sheriff he oversees eight separate budgets, including those for sheriff’s administration, detentions, animal control, emergency management, S.M.A.R.T., the Strategies to Avoid Relapse and Recidivism program, search and rescue and water rescue.

“There are many ways to analyze these budgets,” FitzSimons said. “An analysis by my office does not show a $3.7 million increase. The actual increase across all eight budgets is less.”

FitzSimons noted that the fifth S.M.A.R.T. unit and a sergeant for that program have already been removed from his office’s draft budget, amounting to about $550,000 in cuts that were made before the commissioners asked him to find another $600,000.

“Our budgeting process is extensive, as it should be. Public safety is a critical function of local government, and our budget reflects its importance. Any reduction in budget, and subsequent services, could inevitably impact the residents and guests of Summit County. I remain committed to navigating this process with the Board of County Commissioners.”