The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will continue tracking overtime use at the Sheriff’s Office after a recent review showed that a few employees more than doubled their pay.
“The current system really rewards overspending,” 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann said during the Feb. 10 board hearing.
According to county staff, during the fiscal year 2024-25, 29 Sheriff’s Office employees made more money from working overtime than from their regular salaries. These employees made a combined total of $2.29 million in regular pay and other pay, while also making $2.28 million in overtime pay alone.
Unbudgeted Sheriff’s Office costs tied to overtime pay in 2024 and 2025 led the Board of Supervisors to take a closer look at the department’s timekeeping and payroll activity. On Feb. 10, county staff presented the board with a “limited-scope review,” which it emphasized was not to be confused with an audit of the Sheriff’s Office.
“This engagement was not an audit, and no assurance or opinion is expressed regarding the adequacy of internal controls or compliance with county policies,” the staff report states.
The report described a “recurring pattern” in which some Sheriff’s Office employees coded overtime in their standard work periods before working any regular hours, “distorting overtime reporting and being incongruent with the principle that overtime should only apply after regular hours are worked.”
Hartmann proposed establishing the position of an inspector general to oversee the Sheriff’s Office’s spending related to overtime and other uses, based on a piece of state legislation—Assembly Bill 1185—which allows counties to create sheriff oversight boards.
“Without oversight, the loop continues,” Hartmann said.
Sheriff Bill Brown said at the meeting that the amount of overtime hours the department’s employees use reflects understaffing issues and his office’s response to emergency calls.
“At the end of the day, you control my budget. So if you decide that you want to cut my budget by $10 million or $15 million, we will work within that budget to the extent that we can,” Brown said. “But it’s going to result in things that neither you or your constituents will be happy with.”
“We have many departments that deal with emergencies,” 2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps said. “A picture is being painted that these challenges are unique solely to the sheriff’s department, yet we have other departments that deal with emergencies all of the time.”
With a 4-0 vote (5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino was absent), the board directed its internal audit staff to return monthly for the next six months with updates on the Sheriff’s Office’s overtime use.
This article appears in February 12 – February 19, 2026.