County jail has blown budget

As Congress continues to find ways to bolster the nation’s ailing banking industry, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich needs his own version of a bailout. The sheriff said 23 vacant positions in the jail are creating big overtime bills. He’s also absorbed more than $400,000 in unexpected inmate medical bills this year.

All told, he’s $954,000 over budget and is asking the Spokane County Commission for the money out of the county’s general fund.

County CEO Marshall Farnell said the money will come out of the county’s reserve fund, which has about $14 million set aside for contingencies such as this.

“We’ve known about this for some time. This is no surprise,” Farnell said of the sheriff’s request.

Any inmate who suffers from medical problems becomes part of the county’s bill after they are arrested. The county budgeted $2.3 million for medicines and medical care this year, but medical bills already have overshot that budget by some $438,000.

Much of that overage has come from cases of delirium tremens, where inmates come into jail shaking from alcohol or drug withdrawal. Many required hospitalization, Knezovich said.

In another case, an inmate tried to complete 200 push-ups in less than seven minutes; that inmate is now suffering from a condition in which his muscles are breaking down, the sheriff said.

In addition to rising medical costs, jail officials had almost two dozen jobs unfilled as a result of family medical leave, military service and retirements, Jail Commander Capt. Jerry Brady said.

When the remaining jailers are asked to cover other shifts, the costs can double. Knezovich explained that as part of jailers’ contract with the county, the third overtime shift they are called to cover in a month is paid at double-time.

“We started seeing our double-time explode around April,” he said.

Farnell said jailers also ran up overtime bills for additional courthouse security in the recent civil commitment proceeding for rapist Kevin Coe.

“That is what the reserve fund should be for, emergencies like this,” Farnell said. “The jail is overcrowded. That’s the issue. As a result, they are having overtime.”

Knezovich said he can’t just hire people off the street and throw them the keys to the jail. The county has eight new hires who are undergoing a training regimen that lasts up to nine months, he said.

This is the first time this year Knezovich has asked for additional money, he said. Last year, Brady said the jail’s medical bills were about $200,000 over budget.

The county began the year with about $16 million in reserves, or 10 percent of the $159 million annual budget, Farnell said. The jail budget and other land purchases have reduced the reserve fund to about $14 million.

“It takes a long time to build reserves,” he said. “When you bring in more money than you estimate or when you underspend your budget is how you build reserves.”

Farnell expects the county will miss its $42 million revenue projection from sales tax by about $1.7 million, due to the economy.

“The implications are that it does not build reserves. That’s not a good thing,” Farnell said. “But on the other hand, we are projected to return $2 million unspent from other county departments, which should offset the $1.7 million we won’t be getting in sales taxes.”

Knezovich and Brady are working on a plan to hire more jailers to reduce the overtime bills, he said.

“That’s what we agreed to do to control overtime next year,” Farnell said.

“This is the time of year we run into this type of thing. But I don’t anticipate anything else unless there is some sort of calamity out there.”