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Board of County Commissioners Meeting Minutes - Final July 9, 2025 Director Kristin Daniels to review the relevant spreadsheet. In order to address these questions more effectively. Commissioner Adams sought clarification on the Sheriffs budget statements, noting possible inconsistencies in funding for raises over the past four years. She referenced State Statute 30.49, Chapter 12 which allowed the Sheriff to transfer budget funds after approval, raising concerns about transparency. Commissioner Adams highlighted the need for a clear understanding of salary increases, questioning the sustainability of last year's 5.8% raise and the justification for a 14% increase this year. She emphasized the importance of understanding budget proposals to prevent discrepancies between intended outcomes and actual results. Due to time constraints, Chairman Flescher proposed that the Board move on to the Municipal Service Taxing Unit (M.S.T.U.) and postpone the discussion with the Sheriff until after the lunch recess. This would allow Ms. Cooper and staff to review the allocations in question during that time. [Clerk's note: After reconvening at 2:00 p.m. discussion resumed with the Sheriff "s budget and was placed here for continuity.] Chairman Flescher stated that before the meeting was suspended, concerns had been raised about discrepancies in budget figures between the Sheriffs Office and the Office of Management and Budget. Sheriff Flowers acknowledged an issue with the classification of crossing guards as full-time instead of part-time, which led to an estimated budget overstatement of about $8 million. He stressed that the information they had provided was accurate from their perspective and noted differences in how it had been interpreted when compared to the County Administrator's spreadsheets. Sheriffs office CFO Aimee Cooper pointed out that the numbers on the County Administrator's spreadsheet had legitimate differences. This included discrepancies in positions between fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026. The numbers provided were accurate and reflected the differences between those two years. She suggested that they might have been looking for a simple average of the differences based on the number of positions. While they might not have reached the same target, that did not imply that the numbers themselves were inaccurate. Sheriff Flowers expressed strong dissatisfaction, reiterating that he had requested $14 million for the budget, emphasizing the importance of public safety and the rising costs of operational necessities. He criticized the ongoing budget discussions as ineffective, asserting there were zero new positions in his budget and stressed the need to retain current staff. Sheriff Flowers stated that he would be forced to make cuts, which Indian River County, Florida Page 9