The Seminole County Sheriff's Office closed its last budget year with about $2.55 million unspent, and it is asking county commissioners on Tuesday, Nov. 10, to give $1.88 million of that money back so it can overhaul the engine on its Alert 1 helicopter and finish purchases that slipped past the Sept. 30 year-end.
A memo from the agency's fiscal services director, dated Oct. 27, describes the engine work as a required overhaul and puts the cost at $1 million. The rest of the request, $879,698, covers orders the office says were completed after the fiscal year closed.
Where the carryover money would go
According to the Sheriff's Office closeout memo, the $879,698 breaks down this way:
- $452,622 in capital equipment, about $407,000 of it technology and about $45,000 for the SWAT team
- $275,617 for two fleet vehicles and the gear to outfit them
- $88,920 in equipment for the jail and corrections side
- $37,940 for uniforms
- $24,600 for software
If the Board of County Commissioners approves the budget amendment, the county's general fund keeps a net $670,559 of what the sheriff returned. The county budget office drew up the amendment on Oct. 29, moving the money out of the general fund's contingency reserve.
Radio upgrade paid by Washington
A separate item would put $1.9 million in federal money on the county's books for new vehicle-mounted radios in sheriff's patrol cars. The money comes from the U.S. Justice Department's community policing office under its fiscal 2026 Technology and Equipment Program.
County staff write that Seminole sent the request to U.S. Rep. Cory Mills in April 2025, and that it was funded in the spending package signed into law Jan. 23, 2026. The grant needs no local match, and the work must be finished by Jan. 31, 2028.
The county's emergency management office, which runs its radio system, says the radios are what deputies and dispatchers rely on to talk to each other.
