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POLONCARZ RELEASES AUDIT OF SHERIFF'S OFFICE'S MANAGEMENT OF THE ERIE COUNTY HOLDING CENTER
Comptroller's Audit Finds Potential for Over $6.3 Million in Savings
January 10, 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact: Timothy Callan 716-858-8801 or 716-858-8404
Erie County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz today issued his office's audit of the Erie County Sheriff's Office's ("Sheriff") management of the Erie County Holding Center ("Holding Center").
The audit, which examined the operations of the Holding Center in 2005, found over $7,750,000 was spent on overtime at the Holding Center, and over $2 million in overtime costs could be saved through the hiring of additional deputies and changing the schedules of existing deputies to better suit the needs of securing the Holding Center.
Poloncarz noted, "Our audit found that a major component for the skyrocketing overtime costs at the Holding Center is that not enough deputies are employed to ensure that all required posts are manned without employing overtime, and those that are employed are being scheduled incorrectly. In fact, in order to eliminate all overtime the Sheriff would need to hire ninety-one (91) additional deputies from the December 31, 2005 number of 377. Our Office does not believe that hiring that many officers makes any economic sense, but if an additional eleven officers were hired from the present amount employed of 388, and the Sheriff modified his current method of scheduling to the one proposed in our audit, we believed that overtime costs would be cut by over $2 million dollars in the first year alone."
The Audit also identified over $2 million in savings that could be achieved by ending overstaffing at the Alden Holding Center Annex. Poloncarz noted, "During the course of our audit we identified that the Sheriff is routinely making use of two deputies at the Alden Annex, which practice conflicts with a recent NY State Commission of Correction ("COC") recommendation of one deputy. The Sheriff informed us that there was a union agreement in place that requires an extra deputy to be used, but neither the Sheriff nor the union could produce any such written agreement. This is significant in that this practice costs the County $2.1 million annually by making use of the extra deputy."
Additionally, Poloncarz added, "Our audit also confirmed that Erie County is, in effect, subsidizing the state and federal governments because we are required to house their prisoners in the Holding Center, but we are not being reimbursed for our total expenses. This cost Erie County almost $2,000,000 in 2005 alone."
Other major findings in the audit include:
Almost 20,000 persons were remanded to the Holding Center in 2005, and that the average prisoner was male, held on a misdemeanor charge and spent less than four days at the Holding Center.
An inadequate payroll timekeeping system is used in the monitoring of deputy and staff lineup pay, and that new control measures should be implemented to ensure that the $1.2 million in lineup pay paid out is properly earned.
The Sheriff is not taking advantage of a potential revenue source to pay for some inmate medical costs in that it failed to bill inmate insurance companies for medical costs. This may have cost Erie County over $100,000 in 2005.
Time records did not support overtime payments made to some deputies, and that there are no control measures in place to limit the amount of overtime a deputy could work. For example, forty (40) deputies worked more than sixty-five (65) hours a week on average in 2005, and one deputy worked the equivalent of nearly two full shifts a day each day for two weeks.
The Jail Management System used by the Sheriff is not being utilized to its full extent, and as a result, senior deputies are manually doing the work that could be more efficiently accomplished through the use of the system's full capabilities.
The average deputy works 203 days in a year, and that deputies are not being properly scheduled to make the most efficient use of the days they work.
Poloncarz concluded, "While there is no easy answer to eliminating or reducing overtime at the Holding Center, our office believes that if the Sheriffs Department implements our recommendations, the Holding Center can be managed more efficiently and over $6,000,000 can be saved annually."
In addition to the completed Holding Center Audit, the Erie County Comptroller's Office is conducting an audit of the County's receipt and use of Homeland Security funds and an audit of the Erie County Correctional Facility.
A copy of the audit can be found at the Office of the Comptroller's website at: http://www.erie.gov/comptroller/county_audits.asp
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