Talk about much ado about nothing.
Palm Beach County commissioners put the finishing touches on its new budget that included a dog-and-pony show that highlighted the lack of accountability on the parts of the sheriff and the commission.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has a spending problem. The commissioners are his enablers.
Yes, commissioners trimmed $32 million from the sheriff's budget, and they voted toset up a special taxing districtin hopes of getting Bradshaw to produce a more detailed budget that would show the commission, and more importantly, Palm Beach County taxpayers, how their tax money is being spent. Such accountability clearly beats the one-page document the sheriff produced to justify his $1.2 billion budget request.
The one-page report Bradshaw provided listed $84 million in overtime, $56 million on other services, $28 million on rentals and leases, $25 million in operating supplies, and $2 million on special pay. There was no detail on how this money is being spent, Commissioner Joel Flores noted during a recent budget hearing. That go-take-a-hike response from the sheriff is something the proposed Municipal Service Taxing Unit is supposed to fix. Unfortunately, that's wishful thinking at the moment as the sheriff's special taxing district remains a reform in limbo.
A separate tax rate for Palm Beach Sheriff Office operations is expected to be about $6 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Residents living in one of the county’s 39 municipalities could save about $1,000 a year in property taxes on a home assessed at $500,000. That same home in an unincorporated area could see an increase of about $2,000. In Palm Beach County, about 43% of the county's population lives outside of municipal boundaries.
The commissioners did act on the idea, but they also decided that the taxing district would need a unanimous vote to fund it. That's unlikely given that two of the commissioners ― County Mayor Sara Baxter and Commissioner Maria Sachs ― represent the two districts that contain big portions of unincorporated Palm Beach County. The two commissioners oppose raising taxes on their constituents. At the moment, no change. Still, it was a good show.
A stronger stand needed to rein in sheriff's spending decisions
The problem of ever-increasing costs of law enforcement by sheriffs in Florida's urban counties is nothing new. Public safety, whether it's patrolling neighborhoods and roadways to managing county jails, is not cheap. Operational costs have been increasing over the years to the point where sheriff's budgets are nearly at or exceed half of county general funds in several other counties, including Broward, Lee, Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties.
Unfortunately for Palm Beach County, Bradshaw's budget requests have until recently been, well, easy-peasy for the sheriff. Commissioners previously accepted the sheriff's budget requests, which have grown faster than inflation, forcing the county to scale back its own operations. Despite a $20 million reduction for the coming fiscal year, the sheriff's budget still increased by more than 7%, while the county commission budget decreased by about 2%.
Add to that Bradshaw's troubling track record of dubious spending. His latest ploy of rehiring 41 high-ranking PBSO officerswho had retired to either their former jobs or to newly created posts ― some at higher salaries. This eye-popping bit of news follows other questionable decisions that have taken bigger bites in PBSO personnel costs. The rehiring of high-level retirees comes on the heels of the sheriff's $6.3 million used to pay high-ranking members of PBSO through a special 401(k)-type perk. His charges to municipalities for police protection has also raised questions.
Obviously, the sheriff needs some help in providing better accounting for PBSO operations and greater transparency in explaining his department's expenses to the public. That help falls on the commissioners and county administration, who to date have been comfortable enough to rubberstamp Bradshaw's budget requests with little oversight.
Commissioner Maria Sachs believes the county doesn't need a taxing district to address PBSO spending. If she's got ideas, she and her colleagues had better come up with a viable alternative to the special taxing district idea. Something's got to give, and it shouldn't be the confidence of county taxpayers in the sheriff and the county commission.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: County culpable for Sheriff Ric Bradshaw's spending | Editorial
