Ramsey County Board votes to rein in sheriff's spending

In what has become an ongoing series of budget skirmishes, the Ramsey County Board on Tuesday unanimously approved steps to increase oversight of Sheriff Bob Fletcher's spending.

County Board Chair Trista MatasCastillo said it was time for commissioners to act after a pattern of "massive and intentional" overspending.

"It's our responsibility to oversee the sheriff's budget," she said.

"He may not care that he's spending your money with abandon," MatasCastillo said during the board meeting. "But as taxpayers, you should care that he doesn't think that the rules apply to him."

In a four-page letter Fletcher sent to the board Tuesday afternoon, he said "we have no objection to extra scrutiny of the operations and spending of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. In fact, for the past three years we welcomed county finance staff to regular cooperative reviews of our budget throughout each year. Even they recognized we were underfunded.

"Closer analysis in 2023 will lead to the same conclusion. Simply speaking, our spending is tied to crime and the jail population."

He went on to criticize the board for what he considers an inadequate response to crime.

Besides taking steps to increase its oversight of Fletcher's budget, the board voted to spend $2.7 million from the county's general fund balance to cover the sheriff's overspending in 2022. Officials said Fletcher overspent his budget by more than 5%.

Among the steps commissioners voted to take:

County Manager Ryan O'Connor said the steps, which he recommended, are "a thoughtful and comprehensive approach" to "get on the same page" as the Sheriff's Office on budgeting and procedures.

MatasCastillo said commissioners have tried several approaches to better work with Fletcher on budgeting differences. She said she reached out to him last week to talk, "but I have not heard from him."

Commissioners expressed frustration that the sheriff has repeatedly gone beyond the budget set for his department.

"If the City Council had a police chief who was overspending the budget by 5.5%, they would probably fire that person," Commissioner Nicole Joy Frethem said.

The sheriff is an elected position. Fletcher ran unopposed in 2022 and was re-elected to a four-year term.

Lobbying the board for more money — and spending more than he has been allocated — has become a frequent issue over the past few years.

In 2019, O'Connor put limits on what Fletcher could spend after the county manager forecast that department salaries would put the county about $2.5 million over budget. At year's end, he said the Sheriff's Office was $950,000 over budget.

In August 2021, Fletcher was denied his request for $2.54 million in extra funding. A judge rejected his argument that he was entitled to a higher level of spending. In his ruling, Judge Ronald L. Abrams said the County Board acted within its authority to tighten county department belts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That dispute first erupted after commissioners voted to cut $1.175 million from Fletcher's 2021 budget of some $63 million. The cut was one of several the board made to departments as it sought to keep taxes flat.

This month, the Minnesota Department of Corrections ordered Fletcher's office to reduce the county jail population after state officials said insufficient staffing posed serious physical harm to prisoners at the facility.

At the time, Fletcher said he was aggressively recruiting and hiring more corrections officers but that county leaders must provide more resources and make better use of other facilities, such as the workhouse, for inmates.

The FBI is investigating a 2021 use-of-force incident at the Ramsey County jail that left a woman with a broken leg and other lasting injuries. The woman, Miri Monique Mozuch-Stafford, sued the county and seven jail employees in September, alleging unconstitutional use of force.

Fletcher has twice been elected sheriff, first serving from 1994 to 2011, then returning to office in 2018. A former St. Paul police officer and City Council member, Fletcher has also served as mayor of Vadnais Heights.

Since August 2020, Fletcher has gained a devoted following — and rankled commissioners — for his Friday night Facebook livestream "Live on Patrol." Fletcher and Pat Scott, who became a sheriff's deputy in 2021, use a video camera fixed to a squad car dashboard to give viewers insight into what the sheriff sees in the course of his day-to-day duties, and what he thinks about it.