FARMINGTON – Franklin County Budget Committee members voted Monday to recommend a Sheriff’s Department budget that is slightly lower than requested.

The department had requested $901,384. The committee decided to recommend $874,265, the difference being in overtime costs paid to deputies for details such as the Farmington Fair.

Personnel services, or payroll, was the most contentious issue on the budget. This year’s request increased from $614,879 to $660,444. The increase, according to Sheriff Dennis Pike, included an expected 3 percent raise in deputies’ salaries and costs for overtime details such as the fair, school dances, and seat belt and drunken driving details.

Most of these details are paid back into the county budget by the hiring entity or through grants, but this revenue goes into a county general fund rather than into the sheriff’s budget. This was a point of contention for committee members, who decided to fund only the salary increase but not the overtime.

According to 2003 county records, the department spent about $56,000 in overtime and brought in revenues of $45,000. County Clerk Julie Magoon reported that through the end of October, the department had spent $377,934 in payroll for this fiscal year, out of a budgeted $395,179.

Committee members considered several motions, including recommending the budget at last year’s level of $859,107.

Pike explained to members that he did not expect to enroll any other deputies in the criminal justice academy in 2005. He sent two in the past year, which contributed to overtime costs.

With the deputies’ contract is still being negotiated, he said his biggest fear was having to lay off highly trained deputies. This would be the scenario, he said, if he does not have the budget to pay for a salary increase. He also told the committee that deputies are the lowest paid law enforcement agents in the county.

After voting on three motions, the committee voted 4-3, with two abstentions, on recommending the budget as proposed, minus the request for overtime but with a 3 percent increase in payroll. Stephen Charles abstained because he is a deputy.