Steamboat Springs — Routt County commissioners have placed what amounts to a hiring freeze on the Sheriff's Office while they and Sheriff Gary Wall continue to spar about his department's budget.

In a letter to Wall dated Sept. 23, commissioners ask a number of questions - and request supporting documentation - related to Wall's practices for managing and monitoring his budget, his procedures for authorizing overtime and other issues related to a Sheriff's Office budget that was projected at a meeting two weeks ago to be nearly $300,000 over budget in 2008.

Wall said last week that he disagrees with the projected overage, and that he is disturbed by the tenor of the budget discussions with the commissioners.

"I have never been anything but honest and truthful with them," Wall said Thursday. "It's unfortunate that we have elected officials fighting over these things when we're supposed to be working together."

In a boldface paragraph of the Sept. 23 letter, the commissioners wrote: "Because of the current situation, we have directed the Personnel and Finance departments : to not process any additional Sheriff employee hires on the county payroll until we receive the information requested above, have the discussion referred to above and approve a plan for budget compliance of your department for 2008. This means any new 'hires' will not be considered county employees, will not be placed on the payroll, will not receive pay and will not be eligible for benefits."

"If he's not going to take care of his budget situation, we are," Commissioner Doug Monger said Monday. "The county commissioners are ultimately championed with the fiscal management of the county as a whole."

Wall declined to comment on that part of the letter, but he confirmed the Sheriff's Office is short one employee.

"We're going to be interviewing for that position," Wall said. "It's in the budget."

In a year when county revenues are projected to be down $1.9 million from what was budgeted, the commissioners have expressed disappointment and concern with the overages in Wall's budget, which they claim they were blindsided by in recent weeks.

Wall has provided several justifications for the overages, including costs related to court-ordered, round-the-clock supervision of convicted murderer Luz Cisneros and staff shortages in the county jail. Wall said he notified the commissioners of the challenges presented by Cisneros and produced a letter to County Manager Tom Sullivan dated March 16 that explains the Sheriff's Office request for five additional detention deputies in the 2009 budget.

"I told the commissioners about Cisneros from the beginning," Wall said. "They were aware. The commissioners were aware that we were short in detention and that we would have to pay overtime."

On Monday, Commissioner Diane Mitsch Bush said Wall notified the commissioners of both issues, but she said Wall never mentioned they would put his department over its budget.

The commissioners have requested answers to the questions in their Sept. 23 letter by Oct. 3 and a meeting with Wall by Oct. 7. Little was resolved at the Sept. 16 meeting when Wall's projected budget overages were first discussed.

"We're looking for some substantiation of why he's over budget," said Commissioner Doug Monger.

The commissioners are requesting specific and quantifiable information such as the number of overtime hours attributable to Cisneros' detention in Routt County Jail. Wall said such specificity might not be possible because of the way the Sheriff's Office budget is organized. As a result, Wall said he wants to redo his 2009 budget, a request the commissioners have said will not be received well because of the county's "statutory deadlines for the preparation, distribution and adoption of a budget."

"We want to put more line items in our budget so we can categorize things more accurately," Wall said, "so they, and us, will have a better understanding of where the money's going.

"This is my first budget, and there's a learning curve there, but we have not spent money that was not necessary," Wall continued. "We have these statutory obligations that are just not optional. We don't know from hour to hour and from day to day what's going to come in and cost a lot of money."

The commissioners said Monday that they expect Wall to provide the information they have requested.

"If he can't do it, it shows mismanagement in the Sheriff's Office," Commissioner Nancy Stahoviak said. "Period. End of story."

Also last week, Wall said the $300,000 projected overage for his department is misleading because many of the items that have put him over budget were one-time expenditures that won't continue through the end of the year. Cisneros, for example, is no longer being held at Routt County Jail.

"It sounds like we're being chastised for a projection," Undersheriff David Bustos said Thursday. "As the year comes to an end, we think these numbers are going to come together. It's going to be way closer than $300,000. We really don't have many things we're going to be doing between now and the end of the year."

Overages also have been attributed to some of the Sheriff's Office's training exercises. Wall noted last week that every one of his patrol deputies is SWAT certified.

"We are the only county in the state of our size that can say that," Wall said. "We're not going to lose time in response. I don't have to call out a SWAT team. A SWAT team is available on the road. And I'm proud of that."

Monger has said that such expenditures might not be necessary, and the citizens of Routt County don't necessarily expect that level of service from their Sheriff's Office. In any case, Monger said, Wall should have paid for such training within the confines of his approved budget or asked for supplemental budget.

"We should have been asked," Monger said, "and we should have had some input."

Wall disagreed with Monger when asked if he thinks Routt County residents expect deputies to be SWAT certified.

"I think they would damn sure expect it if something happened," Wall said. "If it was needed, and it wasn't there, I'd be largely criticized. The first thing people are going to say is that the sheriff was negligent and that his officers were not reasonably trained."