Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons filed a lawsuit against the Summit County Board of Commissioners on June 10, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release, and a day later, the commissioners have issued a retort.

In its own news release, Summit County leadership wrote they have not yet seen an official court filing and no named defendants have been served. Lt. Mike Schilling wrote in an email that the lawsuit has been filed, but it will not be served to defendants until the courts have processed the filing.

Although the county release stated it is still reviewing the draft lawsuit document, it provided responses to the claims in the Sheriff’s Office news release.

The Sheriff’s Office release stated the board “retroactively denied a supplemental budget and appropriation of $1,260,000 for 2024 Sheriff’s Office staffing expenses,” and the county denied that claim.

“No one at the County — neither staff nor the BOCC — has ever considered denying or clawing back earned pay for Sheriff’s Office employees; that’s simply not how this works,” the release stated.

The way a supplemental budget, the issue at the heart of the lawsuit, works, according to the county release, is that any spending a department makes in excess of its budget should be reported on a supplemental budget that is submitted before those funds are spent.

The Sheriff’s Office submitted a supplemental budget for overages in its wage spending after those funds were spent, which the county release called a “retroactive” budget amendment that “is not the norm for any (county) department or office.”

A letter the county sent to the Sheriff’s Office on May 15, two days after the board rejected the budget amendment, offered to reconsider the denial if the Sheriff’s Office submitted an itemized budget amendment. The one the county denied had three lines — “without any backup,” the release stated.

The May 15 letter stated the board will keep denying budget amendments in excess of the office’s approved budget but will “continue to consider circumstances that require the disbursement of funds for emergency needs. In the future, all budget amendments will need to be itemized in order to be considered.”

“Nearly a month later, the Sheriff has yet to provide this information­­ — instead choosing a costly lawsuit,” the county release stated.

The Sheriff’s Office has gone over its budget by over $1 million in at least each of the last three years, according to the release.

“Consistently refusing to properly budget for pre-determined wage increases shows a lack of respect for the fiduciary duties of the (office) and the taxpayers who fund (county) operations,” the release stated.

In response to the county release, FitzSimons wrote in an email to Summit Daily that “the crux of this matter is a denied budget amendment for wages already earned by staff of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.”

FitzSimons’ statement read he has been advised by counsel to not comment further at this time.