COEUR d’ALENE — The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office is expected to outspend its fiscal year 2026 budget for overtime this month, mainly due to overtime worked by detention deputies at the county jail.

The agency had spent about $752,839 of its $925,000 budget on overtime as of Jan. 29, according to KCSO, and is projected to exceed its budget in late February, about seven months before the end of the fiscal year. 

Commissioner Bruce Mattare expressed dismay about the overtime budget this week. 

“What is the point of having these budgets and trying to balance them and then having them just blow right past them?” he said during Tuesday’s business meeting. “Where is the money supposed to come from? Fund balance?” 

Capt. Jeremy Hyle told commissioners that the agency’s overtime numbers are trending down compared to last year, and 13 new detention deputies came on board. However, eight of those deputies are still in training, and the agency remains down 16 deputies, putting a strain on existing staff. 

“We’re trying to retain the people that we have while we train and hire others,” he said. 

The county saved about $1.3 million in personnel costs in the fiscal year 2026 budget by halving funding for vacant positions that had been open for more than 100 days, including some detention deputy positions. 

But those savings have proved short-lived for detention deputies, because each shift at the jail must be staffed with a minimum of 13 deputies. 

“When we have 50% positions, the salary savings don’t always make up the difference in overtime,” Commissioner Leslie Duncan said. “It’s one of those balancing acts, because the training takes so long.” 

Mattare said freezing vacant positions within the jail can’t continue. 

“If we make these positions frozen or only half-funded, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said. 

In the future, Mattare said, vacant positions should be accounted for in the overtime budget or the regular personnel budget, with a 50% increase to reflect overtime. 

“We need to start budgeting correctly for the hours that you need to have filled, irrespective of your staffing levels,” he told Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris. 

County Finance Director Brandi Falcon told commissioners that KCSO requested an increase in the overtime budget to $1.2 million for fiscal year 2025. The board denied the request. KCSO did not request an increase for fiscal year 2026. 

Norris said the jail remains consistently over capacity. 

“We’ve had no escapes,” he said. “We’ve had no deaths. We did have six overdoses in the month of December.” 

Norris said that, for the safety of incarcerated people and jail staff, a minimum of 13 deputies must be assigned to each shift.

“The reason they’re out on the floor is to disrupt the inmate rank structure,” he said. “It’s very important that we identify these shot-callers and we disrupt their operations. We don’t want a jail run by inmates.” 

Mattare said the county must consider which expenses KCSO can cut in the coming fiscal year and how to anticipate overtime costs better. 

“No one has a crystal ball, but you can reasonably guess that, based on the last three years’ historical data, we should need about this much for these special situations,” he said.