INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The long-running budget conflict between the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office and the Board of County Commissioners saw new movement Monday, when Sheriff Eric Flowers presented a compromise proposal aimed at ending the lawsuit between the two sides.
Flowers told commissioners he reduced his original request significantly.
“We've again reduced the initial request down from 5.2 to a 2 million dollar … asking for some additional funds out of the general fund,” Flowers said.
In a letter sent to Commission Chair Joseph Flescher ahead of the meeting, Flowers outlined how much money had been returned to the county and how he proposed reallocating it. In the letter, he said he returned $1,162,956.16 in excess funds to the General Fund and $254,995 to the Optional Sales Tax Fund, totaling $1,417,951.16 for Fiscal Year 2024–2025. Of that, he wrote that there were outstanding FY25 purchase orders totaling $495,664.63.
Flowers also noted that other elected constitutional officers returned additional unspent funds to the county: $592,379.60 from Clerk of Court Ryan Butler, $469,529.71 from Property Appraiser Wesley Davis, and $56,330.84 from Supervisor of Elections Leslie Swan. He said that added up to $2,536,191.31 in unexpected and unbudgeted funding.
In his letter, Flowers proposed allocating the full $2,536,191.31 back to the Sheriff’s Office, with $2,040,526.68 being dedicated to the FY26 budget and the remainder for outstanding FY25 purchase orders. He also requested $963,808.69 from county reserves for nonrecurring equipment purchases.
During the discussion Monday, Flowers reiterated his desire to bring the dispute to a close.
“I'm tired of talking about the budget, tired of having this conversation and this is an opportunity for us to end it today,” he said. “I'd really love to be able to move forward and get on to doing what we need to do.”
Commissioner Laura Moss voiced support for restoring the excess funds.
“In the best interest of the community that we return to the sheriff's department simply what he returned to us last year,” Moss said. “We did not want to use anything out of the reserves or anything for recurring expenses. These are not recurring expenses.”
Moss said the move would not require raising taxes.
“We don't have to do that. I confirmed that with the county administrator,” she said.
County Administrator John Titkanich also supported funding at least the equipment portion.
“If you're asking me I would definitely recommend that you do the rollover or carry forward request,” Titkanich said. “I just think out of fairness and equity.”
Commissioners ultimately rejected Moss’s proposal to award the full $1.4 million Flowers sought, but they supported granting $495,000 for rollover equipment costs. Flescher supported that compromise.
“In all fairness I believe that we should roll that number back and have the sheriff apply it to those previously requested purchases,” Flescher said. “What this is is just budgetary fairness.”
Commissioner Susan Adams asked Flowers whether awarding the full $1.4 million would resolve the lawsuit. Flowers said it would not.
“No ma’am, that doesn't get us to where we need to be for the budget purposes,” he said.
In his letter to commissioners, Flowers wrote that while the revised request would still cause operational hardship, he would withdraw both the appeal and the writ of mandamus if the board approved the full proposal.
A motion to award $495,000 passed unanimously. The fate of the broader budget dispute now rests with state officials in Tallahassee as the county awaits a decision from the governor.