Platte County Sheriff Erik Holland has made his budget request for 2027 public, announcing the needs of his department in a press release issued last week.
Holland issued a press release via the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page, directing both the public and county commissioners and the auditor to the full budget request documents.
“In previous years, some lines did not contain a narrative explanation because the items were well-known to the sheriff’s office, auditor’s office and the commission,” Holland said in the letter. “This year, to help the public understand what each line is for and why certain amounts are requested, we have included a narrative for each line, including lines that may appear self-explanatory.”
Some items were also included for strategic planning purposes, Holland said.
A computer hardware line item for $400,000, a radio contracted maintenance line itemfor $368,642 and a radio improvements line item for over $1.8 million are included in the budget documents.
“As explained in the narratives for these lines, these are project items that are coming down the road, and the dollar figure represents the total project cost in today’s dollars,” Holland said. “These numbers are provided to begin discussion and strategic planning for these items and are not requests for full funding of that project in a single year.”
Holland said those three line items are examples of items in the budget request that could be completed in phases, or, potentially, in a different way.
The 74-page document includes narratives explaining the various components of the budget, including federal grants the sheriff’s office receives, salaries for the sheriff and other staff, overtime, equipment and vehicles and more.
Included in the document is information on the detention division, which remains a costly venture for the county as a whole. Boarding of prisoners in other facilities due to crowding at the Platte County Jail continues to increase, and is estimated to cost the county more than $2.2 million in 2027.