The Ward County Sheriff’s Department has been told it will need to help itself if the county is to find $229,952 to boost salaries and stop the potential bleed of officers to the Minot Police Department.

At a budget meeting Wednesday, Sept. 17, the Ward County Commission asked the department to find areas within its budget where money can be redirected to salaries. The $165,000 sitting in an asset forfeiture fund, largely confiscated from drug arrests, was suggested as a place to look.

Sheriff Robert Roed agreed to look for cuts, but the commission also will be looking for cuts in other areas of the budget, potentially freeing up money to help out the Sheriff’s Department.

The commission began tackling the 2026 budget following a public budget hearing that drew comments from a Human Service Zone employee concerned about health insurance changes and Ward County Water Board member Travis Zablotney, who invited cuts to the board’s levy due to its large cash reserves.

The commission found $402,850 in cuts in health plan adjustments and funding for the North Dakota State Fair and Ward County Highway Department. The State Fair had requested $300,000 to maintain the previous year’s funding, and the commission previously allocated $225,000 in the proposed budget. Commissioners cut the amount further to $150,000 on Wednesday. The commission also reduced the highway department mill levy for equipment and operations from 5.5 mills to 5 mills, for a $198,000 savings.

The commission was interested in making cuts to various outside organizations that it supports, including historical societies, economic development groups, First District Health Unit and water boards. However, that discussion was postponed to allow for input from those organizations.

The commission began the budget discussions Wednesday with a proposed property tax levy that was $61,000 over the state mandated 3% cap on levy increases. As it stood, the tax on a $225,000 home with no valuation change would go down $7.19, while the tax on an average quarter of agricultural land would go down $3.36.

Deeper cuts were considered by the commission to better fund priorities, including addressing salaries in the Sheriff’s Department.

“We’re in trouble there,” Commissioner Jim Rostad said. “To me, our law enforcement is just one of our very top priorities, and we’re losing officers. I want to put a stop to it.”

Roed noted the level of raises proposed won’t fully prevent the loss of officers but the goal is to retain those who would like to stay. He previously told the commission that four patrol officers have applied to the Minot PD and a few others are considering it. The loss of officers to the city has resulted from large pay discrepancies between the two agencies, he said.

Roed said the police department has indicated it will move rapidly with hiring within weeks after some adjustments are made in its department. Adjustments include giving new hires with experience lateral transfers into the city’s pay plan, said Commissioner Miranda Schuler, who also sits on the city’s Civil Service Commission.

“I understand we’re in a tough spot. We don’t have a lot of extra funds,” Schuler said, calling the proposed pay adjustments in the Sheriff’s Department a radical idea. “Maybe it won’t work, but we have to do something. Otherwise, we’re going to be playing catch up, and hiring people and training people is incredibly expensive as well, so I think there’s actually some cost saved by trying to retain people.”

The police department also is reacting to a crisis it is facing with personnel numbers.

Minot Police Chief Michael Frye, speaking to the Minot City Council on Sept. 15, mentioned the department is 20-28 bodies short and on the verge of going to 12-hour shifts to stretch the resources of the remaining personnel. He added staff shortages have him close to pulling the plug on school resource officers, drug task force and other services that aren’t answering 911 and investigations – the primary purpose of law enforcement.

“I am fighting hard every day out in the public, out recruiting, and believe it or not, I am a strong recruiter. Within the next month or so, you will see a huge increase. I can’t talk about it today, but you will see a large increase. These positions that we are talking about help stabilize this police department, and I will be putting in place and bringing before you recommendations that will help us not be in this position. The goal is: Get through this turmoil and then be better and not go through this again,” Frye said.

Schuler proposed including half the Sheriff Department’s pay plan, about $115,000, in the 2006 budget, to be spent starting in June. She added it doesn’t mean she doesn’t support fully funding the plan.

“I fully support it as well if we can find a way to do it so that we can show support for the sheriff and the work that they’re doing and our current employees, so that it really gives them pause before they decide to leave. Because the challenge is, one week from now, instead of being four, it could be seven, and I want to try to mitigate that as much as I can,” she said.

Her proposal didn’t advance as the commission sought to first see whether full funding can be found. The commission plans to meet again Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 8:30 a.m. to continue the budget discussion.