Audit Recommends Changes To Sheriff's Department

A new audit recommends several significant changes to the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office to cut costs and increase efficiencies, including addressing jail staffing and overcrowding, charging townships more for community police officers, improving technology, and reducing the department’s vehicle inventory.

The findings, which were prepared by consultant Mary Lannoye and Grand Traverse County Deputy Administrator Jennifer DeHaan, will be presented to county commissioners Wednesday.

The Sheriff’s Office represents 37 percent of the county’s total general fund budget, or $14 million – the “largest portion of the county’s general fund that is allocated to one department, under the direction of an elected official,” according to the report. Because of its size, “the operations of the department have the potential to both positively and negatively impact the financial status of the county’s budget,” wrote Lannoye and DeHaan.

A bulk of the audit’s recommendations focus on corrections and the Grand Traverse County Jail, as well as on county patrol. The two service areas combined comprise 78 percent of the Sheriff’s Office budget. The audit found “highly trained correctional officers” were routinely used to perform basic clerical and intake services at the jail, including spending an average of 35 hours per week answering phone calls. Replacing those positions with “cadet” or civilian staff would free up corrections officers to focus on more specialized corrections work and provide a career path into law enforcement for civilians – both outcomes that could help address ongoing vacancies in the department, the audit found.

Lannoye and DeHaan also recommended establishing a Criminal Justice Council to coordinate and set policies for the entire local criminal justice system, and exploring Medicaid eligibility for jail inmates to reduce medical costs. Grand Traverse County spent $508,000 on jail medical services in 2015. The audit also zeroed in on jail overcrowding, noting the county has an “expired” overcrowding plan and spends $90 per inmate per day on housing – a figure significantly higher than comparable counties.

“Another option might be to close an area in (Grand Traverse County Jail) and to contract out a larger number of beds from a neighboring county, given that the cost per day of $30 is significantly less than the county’s cost of over $90 per bed per day,” the report recommends.

The audit also includes suggestions for bolstering the department’s revenues, such as by charging townships more for their community police officers. Grand Traverse County is reimbursed $76,588 for each CPO – regardless of whether the officer is a deputy, detective or lieutenant – by participating townships, with the actual cost for each CPO estimated at $110,000. “That means the county is reimbursed for 70 percent of the costs and is supplementing the costs of the additional officers,” the report concluded. “In this difficult budget time, the county might want to pursue increasing the reimbursement per deputy.”

Former County Administrator Dave Benda previously sought to charge townships the full cost of CPOs, but failed to gain support from county commissioners or township representatives, the latter of whom argued townships already pay taxes to Grand Traverse County that contribute to funding the Sheriff’s Office.

Other key audit recommendations include updating Central Records technology to streamline record-keeping and reduce staff time, and creating a formal vehicle replacement policy for the Sheriff's Office. The audit warned having 94 vehicles for an agency "with 66 sworn officers seems excessive and has the appearance of not managing public resources." Lannoye and DeHaan also wrote that the department's request to add five new deputies in 2017 would cost $335,000 and that "sufficient evidence" hadn't been provided to justify the expense.

Undersheriff Nate Alger says his department provided the "lion's share" of the data and information contained in the audit, "so none of the suggestions were really a surprise to us. Some of them we've addressed and discussed before." However, Alger says staff would have liked more time to review the audit and discuss it with administrators before it went up for public commission discussion Wednesday, noting Sheriff Tom Bensley has been out of the country and "has yet to see (the audit)."

"We've been waiting for the audit for months, so we would have appreciated more time," Alger says. "Because the sheriff hasn't reviewed it, we don't have an opinion on the recommendations yet. At this point, we don't plan on addressing it with the board (Wednesday)."