El Paso County approves plan for up to 40 unfunded jail officer slots amid budget strain

EL PASO, Texas – (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso County commissioners approved a plan on Monday to allow the Sheriff’s Office to create up to 40 new unfunded detention officer positions each year.

The approved plan aims to ease staffing shortages at the county jail as the county and the Sheriff’s Office work through budget concerns.

The Sheriff’s Office said the positions would primarily be used to account for detention officers who are selected to attend a Peace Officer Academy and then transition into commissioned roles.

Additionally, the sheriff’s office said the plan aims to help the agency maintain its current authorized detention staffing levels and avoid delays in the hiring process.

The staffing issue is tied in part to the way deputy candidates move through training.

According to Monday’s presentation during the county commissioners’ meeting, any deputy candidate must serve one year in detention operations before applying to the six-month-long peace officer academy.

But while candidates attend the academy, they continue to hold their detention officer positions even though they are not able to work jail shifts.

The county presentation says there are two six-month peace officer academies each year.

It also shows 21 detention officers attending the peace officer academy, a situation that creates staffing gaps and adds pressure on overtime spending.

To address those gaps, the Sheriff’s Office, the county Budget and Finance Office, and Human Resources proposed up to 40 new unfunded positions.

Those positions would only be paid for as salary savings become available within the Sheriff’s Office budget.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, this proposal would leverage existing savings to convert a portion of the workload from overtime back to regular staffing.

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Office said the positions “are intended to provide flexibility for staffing management and do not represent an increase in funded positions.”

The office added, “This approach helps ensure that the Sheriff’s Office can maintain its current authorized detention staffing levels without creating delays in the hiring process.”

County Commissioner Jackie Butler said she sees this plan as a way to help stabilize staffing levels.

“I think it’s important when we are having a conversation about budget and jail staffing and making sure the sheriff’s office has the resources they need, that we understand that operating a jail is the most critical function of county government, and that we understand what is driving this need for more staffing and thereby more funding and budget allocations. To me, this seems like relatively low-hanging fruit. When I sat down with the sheriff a year ago to talk about staffing, he did mention this gap…I see this as a way to stabilize the staffing levels,” Butler said.

However, County Commissioner Sergio Coronado said that while this is one way to help reduce overtime issues, there are still other issues that need to be addressed.

“This is one way we can help reduce the overtime and get these individuals quickly to those positions from the academy. I think this is one way, I think there are other things we need to work with…there’s a lot of other issues that we need to work on, with what we spoke of at the Justice Leadership Council, and we need to start implementing and working on with all the departments to address,” Coronado said.

Meanwhile, the now-approved plan comes after a March budget presentation to commissioners showed the county’s public safety sector, which includes the sheriff’s office, had spent about 47 percent of its budget through February, about five months into the fiscal year.

Overtime spending was cited as one of the driving concerns.

While county leaders have said staffing at the Sheriff’s Office is up to national standards and that this is the first year the jails have no detention officer vacancies, Sheriff Oscar Ugarte previously said in a statement that “while current reports may indicate that staffing tables are ‘full’ with no vacancies, those tables have not been updated in several years to reflect the significant growth across El Paso County.”

He added, “Our goal is not only to meet minimum standards on paper, but to ensure we have the personnel necessary to operate safely, effectively, and sustainably.”

In response to the sheriff’s budget concerns, commissioners in April approved a formal letter asking for a discussion on how to fix the spending gap, warning that the department is spending through its budget too quickly.

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