Utah County avoiding sheriff's layoffs

PROVO — At least a dozen jobs were on the line Monday night as the Utah County Sheriff's Office trimmed its budget by $3.5 million for 2010.

An estimated $2.9 million boost to the budget from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, allowed the department to keep all of its current personnel — for now.

On Tuesday, Utah County commissioners adopted the 2010 general-fund budget — which includes the sheriff's office budget — without raising property taxes or laying off county employees.

But Clerk/Auditor Bryan Thompson said another $500,000 needs to be trimmed from the budget. Those cuts could be made though layoffs, attrition or cutting other expenses.

The final budget figure is $81.75 million, down from $82.5 million last year.

Sales-tax revenue was down 10 percent in 2009, making balancing the budget challenging. Still, commissioners said this year's budget process was the smoothest they have ever seen.

Instead of having department heads tell commissioners what dollar figure they needed, commissioners gave them a bottom line to work with, Thompson said.

During a public hearing Tuesday, Cedar Hills resident Joel D. Wright suggested that the county cut employees' wages to offset shortfalls in the budget.

Commissioner Larry Ellertson said pay cuts were discussed, but commissioners and department heads decided against it.

Sheriff Jim Tracy said cutting salaries really is the last resort. If employees are underpaid, they will find work elsewhere, he said.

Over the past two years, Tracy said, he has not replaced 26 employees due to budget cuts. Those cuts, along with reductions in maintenance and equipment, are hindering the department's response time to incidents, he said.

"My hope is to work with the commission to find a more stable source of income," Tracy said. "I cannot do this again."

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