Apr. 18, 2024 Board of Supervisors Budget Public Hearing

meeting

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors 2h 36m 1 speaker 7 agenda items transcribed 7 days ago official recording ↗

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What opening remarks and speaker lineup are announced at the start of the hearing?

Jeffrey C. McKay 0:08

Welcome everyone to our uh third and final day of budget public hearings, uh April eighteenth, twenty twenty-four. And we have uh speakers list before us where we have uh twenty-seven people who have signed up in advance to testify today, and I am gonna uh call them in the order in which the speakers list uh is before me and I will announce um at the beginning of this Uh we do have one, two, three, four people who have signed up in addition to the twenty-seven speakers. And so I will announce at the beginning of this that at the end of our speakers list today, uh anyone who has not already testified, who would like to testify before the board uh will have an opportunity at the end of our speakers list today to sign up to testify.

Jeffrey C. McKay 0:53

And so if you are here and you are not already signed up, if you could see the clerk. Down here and make sure that you get signed up so that we have you on the list. Our first, I'm gonna call our first couple speakers today. Um, as I call your name, if you can be down here close to the podium, so then when it's your time to testify, uh you are ready to go. That would be appreciated. Our first speaker today is Sheriff Stacy Kincaid to be followed by Steve Monahan, Kevin Geere, and Corazon Sandoval. Foley. Uh those are speakers one, two, three, and four. And speaker number one is Sheriff Stacy Kincaid. Welcome.

Stacy Kincaid 1:30

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman McKay and members of the board. The Fairfax County Sheriff's Office is your public safety team, and we take great pride in the exceptional services we provide to the county. Each year for the past ten years I have come before the board asking for fair and equitable pay. We have proven time and time again that we are good stewards of the funds we are budgeted each year. I appreciate the county executives' proposed budget changes to our starting pay grade and longevity steps. Unfortunately, this funding is not enough to make our agency competitive in today's law enforcement professional job market. With a vacancy rate of twenty six percent, I have made numerous cutbacks that affect not only my agency but also the residents of Fairfax County.

Stacy Kincaid 2:30

Since September of twenty twenty two, the following changes have been made. Mandatory overtime for staff during FY twenty twenty three at a cost of six point nine million dollars. We anticipate the estimated cost of eight point three million dollars this year. To further illustrate, we average seven to nine deputies working overtime each shift to ensure the safety of the adult detention center. These overtime assignments are ours. These deputies should spend at home with their family. Captains and first lieutenants have been working overtime in operational positions that are designated for sergeant or private first class. I closed the alternative incarceration branch, which has left our judiciary without any sentencing alternatives, such as work release, home incarceration and electric monitoring, and the fines option program.

Stacy Kincaid 3:34

I suspended the community labor force. I modified operations at the prisoner intake area to accommodate staffing shortages, leading to longer wait times for officers and their arrestees. Currently, all divisions within the Sheriff's Office are below recommended staffing levels. These changes have had significant impacts on my staff. High levels of stress due to mandatory overtime are rising, and operating in this manner is unhealthy and unsustainable. Staff attrition has increased due to comparably low pay, mandatory overtime, and quite frankly, a general feeling of being unappreciated. Jail population has risen in part due to the closure of jail alternatives previously provided by the alternative incarceration branch.

Stacy Kincaid 4:29

We are forecasted to reach a vacancy rate of thirty percent by the end of the calendar year, and further cutbacks such as removing my staff from the Sharon Bulova Center for Community Health and Code Compliance are likely to occur. I need your help and I am asking for two point nine million dollars to be added to our budget. This equates to a three point five pay increase for sworn staff.