Sheriff William Johnson has not ordered layoffs in his department as a result of the quarterly appropriations handed down to him by commissioners last week.
Citing the sheriff’s failure to bring his spending in line with annual appropriations, commissioners last week clamped down on the sheriff by putting his department on quarterly appropriations. In practice, that means the sheriff will have to trim his department’s spending significantly in the third quarter, which began July 1.
The sheriff, who is suing the board to get additional funding for his department, said he had planned all along to make adjustments to his budget in the final quarter to bring it in line with his appropriations. Johnson said he never has failed to balance his budget in the 17 years he has held the job.