Clackamas County recently conducted a survey of its residents. (Courtesy photo)

After the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office went over budget during the 2024-25 fiscal year, the county government has begun to monitor its finances more closely.

The board of commissioners approved of staff’s monitoring plan during a meeting Tuesday, July 8.

The plan includes the county’s finance department reviewing the department’s spending compared to budget, as well as transactions, payroll (including reporting of hours worked by employees), grant reporting and more. Information will then be presented monthly to the county board of commissioners.

The board will then determine in November whether to transfer all sheriff’s office financial functions to the main county financial department starting January 1, 2026. A county staff member said during the meeting that the finance department is not enthusiastic about the idea of taking over the sheriff’s office finances and that the goal is for the sheriff’s office to correctly comply with monitoring and reporting so that it doesn’t have to.

The commission was unhappy to find out earlier this year that the sheriff’s office had exceeded its budget allocation during the 2024-25 fiscal year, requiring the county to provide additional funding so the department could operate normally through the end of the fiscal year. Clackamas County Sheriff Angela Brandenburg said that she had exceeded budget allocations due in part to the commission’s directive to keep hiring. However, some commissioners wanted her to use levy funding rather than rely on general fund backfill to comply with that objective. In the end, the commission allocated $1 million from the public safety levy and $5.5 million in general funds to fill the deficit.