Office of the Sheriff

Winnebago County

Gary Caruana
Sheriff

Mr. Frank Haney

Chairman of the Winnebago
County Board
404 Elm Street
Rockford, IL 61101
April 30, 2018

Dear Chairman Haney and members of the County Board:

As you know, on September 28, 2017 the Board approved a budget for
Fiscal Year 2018 that imposed a $4.3 million reduction in the Sheriff’s budget
from the previous fiscal year. The county’s total budget cuts reportedly amounted
to $6.7 million. Out of that total, the Sheriff’s Office was inexplicably required to
sustain $4.3 million of those cuts. The budget cut was authorized over my strong
objection and became effective three days later, on October 1, 2017.
From the moment this cut was authorized, I informed you that it would be
impossible to make the $4.3 million mark during one fiscal year. This is due, in
part, because we began the fiscal year at a deficit of more than $1 million. In
addition, between October and the present, the County negotiated $413,471 in FOP
raises that were not included in our budget.
On November 21, 2017 I sent you and the Board a letter outlining our plan
to comply with the Board authorized cuts and notifying you that we will not be
able to reach the $4.3 million mark by September 30, 2018. I concluded that letter
by asking you and the Board to work with me to solve this problem. Between
November 2017 and as recently as April 25, 2018, we have had dozens of meetings
in which I briefed you on the progress of our cost reduction efforts and the
inescapable fact that we cannot make any more cuts this fiscal year.
To date, we have made approximately $2.7 million in budget cuts. This
achievement is the result of my staff and I working tirelessly to examine and
reexamine each part of our operation to eliminate or reduce expenditures wherever
it was possible to do so. These actions included laying off personnel, streamlining
administrative procedures and collaborating with other law enforcement agencies
to achieve economies of scale.
295th Nationally Accredited Law Enforcement Agency
 We are continuing to work hard and in good faith to identify other areas in
which we can cut our budget. At your request, we have agreed to work with
LEAN process consultant Dominic Sawchuk to examine our courthouse transports,
civil process and courthouse security. I agreed to work with this consultant despite
having serious reservations about his lack of experience and knowledge about law
enforcement operations. No other county department has agreed to work with Mr.
Sawchuk. Nor has any county agency in this region been forced to sustain this
large of a budget reduction in one fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, we are continuing in good faith to work within the budget
limitations imposed upon my office by the County Board. I am proud of our cost
cutting efforts and the relief it may have provided to taxpayers. However, I simply
cannot make any additional cuts without endangering the safety of the public, my
deputies on the street and correction officers in the jail. As I previously informed
you, my office will be presenting a request for a budget amendment in May 2018.
It remains imperative that the County Board take steps necessary to solve this
critical issue. Once again, I am asking you and the balance of the County Board to
work with me to solve this very serious problem.

Respectfully,

_______________________
Gary Caruana
Winnebago County Sheriff