Sheriff's office to close lobby services in King City and Monterey due to budget cuts.

Due to budget cuts, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office will close two of its substation offices to lobby services, effective Monday, Nov. 17. 

“When July 1 hit and the new fiscal year started, we ended up in a situation where we were looking at an increase in costs—operation costs, raises in insurance benefits. Everything costs more money nowadays,” says Monterey County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Andres Rosas.

As part of an effort to balance the county’s annual budget, the sheriff’s office had to reevaluate its own budget, cutting $5.8 million and deciding to consolidate some of its operations, according to a Monterey County Sheriff’s Office press release. As a result, the sheriff’s office, unable to fill three records positions due to financial constraints, is relocating two records personnel—one from each substation office—to the sheriff’s main office in Salinas where there is a greater need for records staff.

The substation offices themselves will remain open to ensure timely responses to calls, with no impact on patrol staffing; however, the lobby services will remain closed. The lobby services at the Monterey substation office averaged 20-25 daily visitors, while the King City office saw 7-10 daily visitors, according to Rosas. The records personnel provide services such as copying police reports, handling civil paperwork pickup and taking counter reports for incidents like car break-ins or property vehicle release records.

Rosas says the sheriff’s office is exploring virtual services that would connect visitors with staff in Salinas to answer questions remotely. 

“If [people] need a copy of a report, we obviously can't send the copy of the report through the system, but at minimum, it’ll allow them to talk to a person,” Rosas says. "This is something that we are exploring right now. We don't have a specific timeline. Our hope is to try to get that up as quickly as we can."