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COLUMBUS, Ga. — The Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office has been working their tails off, and doing so has caused them to overspend their budget by a whopping $1.5 million.

The expenses actually appear to not only be entirely justifiable, but are in the best interest of the city and the Sheriff’s scope of work.

In fact, the overwhelming majority of the expenses are simply due to the rising costs of utilities bills and materials felt by everyone due to inflation.

During the council meeting held on May 9, 2023, an update was provided on the Sheriff’s Office. That update included a staggering — though very justifiable — need for an additional $1.5 million to cover the year’s expenses.

Whenever a city office exceeds their allocated budget and requires additional funds, they are required to come before city council to make the request pursuant to Ordinance No. 13-39.

Those expenses included hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased utility bills, materials, gas for vehicles, and overtime for personnel.

The extra expenses excluding the costs for overtime were broken down as follows:

• County Jail Water Bill: $250,000;
• County Jail Electric Bill: $50,000;
• Operating Materials: $190,000;
• Vehicle Fuel: $150,000.

The above-listed expenses amount to $640,000 of the total $1.5 million ask. Though the overtime amount was not specifically itemized at the meeting, we can mathematically conclude that the overtime amounted to the remaining $860,000.

That’s a lot of overtime.

 Sheriff Countryman himself explained how the city’s extreme rates of crime have caused his deputies to work so much overtime that they have massively exceeded their budget for the current fiscal year. Though the sheriff’s office does currently have 20 staffing vacancies, the combined salary savings just aren't enough to cover the amount of overtime required for other deputies to keep up with the city’s crime rate.

That overtime — when combined with the additional material cost increases plus the Sheriff’s Office’s increased rate of work — wound up exceeding their current budget by $1.5 million for the current fiscal year. 

Countryman came hat-in-hand asking the council to appropriate that additional million-and-a-half dollar amount.

Here’s what Sheriff Greg Countryman had to say when asked about how the large amount of overtime came to be:

“Although we are probably about 20 sworn officers from being fully staffed, what happens is that at the jail, we have a number — when I look at our daily activity report from the jail — we at least have about three to four individuals that go to the hospital every single day. So that means that if we can’t pull from our regular personnel, that we have to have individuals come in and work their off-day — and they do nothing but guard inmates at the hospital.”

Countryman also spoke about the overworking of the MCSO’s investigators, who are working sometimes up to 20 hours per day:

“You’re talking about 12-hour shifts on average that our investigators are working. Some days, it’s about 16-18 hours per day over the weekend. Although they were off, they put in probably about 20 hours, some of them, just from tracking down certain individuals that we’ve been looking for. So on average, for our investigators, they’ve been working enormous amounts of overtime.”

Countryman continued by explaining how there really is no other option given the circumstances that MCSO personnel currently find themselves in:

“And I don’t know how we can engage that piece of it, but even at Jail Bureau, in order for us to have the proper personnel balance for us to have the right officer-to-inmate ratio — which we would never meet that but we we try to get as many individuals to come in on their off day to help us fill that. Because if Patrol is busy and can’t come and fill those boards, we have to get deputies or correctional officers from the outside on their off-days to come in.”

While several councilors did have legitimate questions as they sought to understand the truth of the situation, it was easily explained and understood that the salary savings simply aren't enough to cover the overtime required. 

Councilor Tucker (District 4) immediately moved to approve the request. After some light discussion, all city council members unanimously voted to provide Sheriff Countryman with the $1.5 million he requested.

We at the Muckraker are very pleased to see our city’s law enforcement officers continue to be paid the overtime they not only deserve, but were willing to put up the work to earn in the first place.

From us at the Muckraker: thank you for what you continue to do for our city each and every day.

We’re glad our elected officials are prioritizing resources to get you what you need.

Perhaps that should continue to be a trend.

Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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