FARMINGTON – Franklin County commissioners met with Sheriff Dennis Pike to discuss an anticipated shortfall in the department’s budget this year.

Pike blamed unanticipated expenditures and overtime charges for the overspending.

The department’s computer server “was fried,” he said, in a power surge after an outage. It cost $2,000 to repair so it could “limp along” until a new one could be purchased and programmed, he said. It was unclear whether insurance will pay for any or all of the computer replacement costs.

Another surprise expenditure was the cost of gasoline. Nobody could have predicted the price of gas to rise so dramatically, Pike said.

But the budget item of most concern to commissioners was personnel overtime. The county budget committee last week voted to delete all overtime from the department’s requested budget.

The total budget for deputies wages in 2004 was $395,179, including overtime.

In a Dec. 3 letter to Pike, Chief Deputy Ray Meldrum spelled out the department’s budget shortfalls. He said he expects the budget for deputies’ wages to be overspent by $46,667 this fiscal year, which ends Dec. 31.

County Treasurer Karen Robinson said the department had spent about $90,000 in overtime wages this year.

More than 800 hours of overtime were unanticipated this year, according to Pike.

Several factors contributed to overspending in the overtime budget, according to Meldrum. Covering shifts for full-time deputies who were unavailable to work contributed the most. Other factors were:

• Training: Two deputies, rather than one budgeted, were sent to the academy this year. Deputy David Rackliffe attended in spring, when Deputy Kenneth Charles was expected to go. Charles’ deployment to Iraq last year lasted longer than anticipated. He returned this summer and was required to attend the academy as soon as possible. He will be graduating this month. Both their shifts were covered while they were at the academy.

• An injury: Cpl. Nathan Bean broke his ankle and was out for eight weeks.

• A change in overtime policy: This is the first year that deputies were paid overtime after 40 hours rather than 43, which was legal and had been the former policy.

“This alone added many hours of overtime to the payroll. An oversight on my part as it had never been an issue before,” wrote Meldrum.

Two part-time officers were able to work many of the replacement shifts, saving the department some overtime dollars, he said.

Commissioners wondered about special details such as Phillips Old Home Days and the Wilton Blueberry Festival, where deputies are typically paid overtime and, unlike the Farmington Fair, does not bring in any revenue. Pike told commissioners that detail overtime was “minuscule” compared with other overtime costs.

The department has been running in the red since 2002, said Pike, and wages have been the most influential factor. That’s why he has requested a budget increase, he said.

“I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t ask for an increase (in the overtime budget for 2005) to make it right,” Pike said.

The department has curtailed all further purchasing for the year including deliveries of gas and cleaning services.

Pike, being salaried, said he’ll be vacuuming the offices until next year when the new budget goes into effect.