Seeing no willingness from Sheriff Eric Flowers to further reduce his proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, the County Commission decided Monday to approve the $6 million increase recommended by County Administrator John Titkanich.

Flowers did not attend the special-call workshop because of a scheduling conflict, but he sent a letter stating that he would not accept less than a $12.2 million increase – down from the nearly $15 million he sought in his initial proposal.

The commissioners refused to even consider such an increase, essentially telling Flowers to present his case to the governor, who has the authority to raise the sheriff’s budget.

“If he wants to stick on $12 million, let’s take it to Tallahassee,” said Commissioner Joe Earman, who joined Commission Chairman Joe Flescher in rejecting claims that the county is reducing the sheriff’s budget.

“It’s disingenuous to say we’re cutting his budget,” Flescher said. “He’s still getting an increase.”

He’s just not getting the increase he wanted.

Earman said he was willing to go to $7 million, but he preferred to stay at $6 million. Commissioner Laura Moss, though, refused to budge from her suggestion that the county increase its offer to $6.8 million, and she said she’s willing to entertain additional cuts to the county’s overall budget.

“It’s not the sheriff asking for himself,” she said. “He’s asking for the deputies. … I want to help as many of the deputies as possible. 

Commissioner Susan Adams went along with Flescher and Vice Chairman Deryl Loar in backing Titkanich’s recommendation.

Loar said there was no reason to look for additional cuts in Titkanich’s proposed budget to improve the commission’s offer to the sheriff – because Flowers won’t be satisfied with anything less than a $12 million increase.

“It sounds like whatever number we give to the county administrator, it’s going to be challenged,” Loar said. “So, if it’s going to be challenged, why would be cut vital components of our agency?”

In his letter, Flowers cited a state law that requires the commission to identify specific expenses it believes can be cut from the agency’s budget.

Titkanich, however, said that document doesn’t need to be filed until the commission approves its 2025-26 budget – and that won’t be until next month.

The commission is scheduled to formally set the county’s millage rate for the next fiscal year on Sept. 10, with the final budget hearing to be held a week later.

With no meaningful progress made during a 30-minute meeting on Aug. 5, Titkanich said last week there was little reason to believe Flowers would be willing to compromise.

“We’re still not close,” Titkanich said Thursday as he prepared for the special-call workshop, which was held in a near-empty chamber and offered none of the dramatics of the commission’s first budget session on July 9.

The administrator said he held a “very cordial” meeting with Flowers – their second in three weeks, “but we’re not in the same place.”

Heading into Monday’s workshop, in fact, Titkanich and Flowers were still more than $5 million apart, despite both sides having given ground – something the sheriff had emphatically said he wouldn’t do.

Flowers reduced his budget-increase request to $12.2 million, while the administrator has twice increased his offer, first to $6.1 million and then to just over $7 million.

Titkanich, however, said there’s no way he can come close to satisfying the sheriff’s latest request.

“I’ve been very clear: We can’t do it,” Titkanich said, adding that – in the weeks since the commission’s July workshop – he has squeezed his already-tight budget to enable the county to increase its offer to just over $7 million.

“After a lot of sausage making, we were able to get to the $7 million,” he continued. “But we can’t get to $12 million without cutting staff and programs, almost certainly to the point where services would be impacted.”

Asked if county residents would notice the effects of those personnel cuts and service reductions, Titkanich replied: “I don’t see how they wouldn’t.”

Loar, who served three terms as the county’s sheriff before retiring from law enforcement in 2021, said last week he saw no compelling reason to go beyond the $7 million the administrator has offered Flowers.

“I had the job for 12 years, and I know he can make it work with the $7 million increase,” Loar said last weekend. “He was elected to a constitutional office, and he can figure it out. How he does it? That’s up to him.”

Flowers originally submitted a $94.3 million budget proposal that represented a massive increase of $14.6 million. He said $9 million would cover across-the-board, $10,000-per-year raises for his deputies, too many of whom he claims are leaving to take better-paying jobs with other area law-enforcement agencies.

Titkanich, who described the nearly $600 million budget he presented to the commission as “fiscally conservative,” offered the second-term sheriff a $4.7 million increase that was raised twice at last month’s workshop – first to $5.8 million, then to $6.1 million.

Flowers rejected all three offers, telling the commissioners, “Every year, we settle. I’m done settling.” Obviously, though, he was bluffing, agreeing to accept $12.2 million three weeks ago.

The sheriff did not respond to Vero Beach 32963’s request for comment on the status of his budget negotiations with Titkanich. The request was sent via text message to Lieutenant Kevin Jaworski, the agency’s public information officer.

Titkanich said he was able to improve the county’s budget-increase offer to Flowers to $7 million largely through staff reductions – cutting positions, not filling vacant positions and changing some positions from full time to part time.

In addition, Titkanich said the county was able to save more than $400,000 through a reduction in the funding request from the 19th Judicial Circuit’s Court Administration and sharing the cost of Mental Health Court with the local Hospital District.

The administrator also said there has been some talk of shifting the county’s animal-control operations to the Sheriff’s Office, adding, “There may be some desire on their part to do it.”

Titkanich was somewhat encouraged by the willingness of Flowers to share with him budget-related records, including contracts with outside vendors, so he could explore areas where the agency might be “over-budgeting.”

Flowers employed a noticeably more demanding tone during the July budget workshop, where, with the commission chamber packed with deputies and other supporters, he refused to compromise on anything.

In his proposal, Flowers floated the possibility that the commission could increase the county’s property-tax rate to accommodate his budget request.

Commissioners, though, overwhelmingly rejected the sheriff’s suggestion, voting unanimously at the workshop to maintain the county’s millage rate – $3.55 per $1,000 of assessed property value – for the sixth consecutive year, ending any realistic chance Flowers would get anything close to what he wanted.

Flescher defended the decision, citing the economic challenges faced by many county residents, particularly seniors living alone on fixed incomes.

The commissioners agreed with Flowers’ contention that starting deputies should be making considerably more than $50,600 annually, but they questioned how he allocated the $22 million in budget increases they had given him over the past four years.