INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. — The Indian River County Sheriff has filed a lawsuit against county commissioners, claiming they violated state law during the budget approval process after reducing his funding request by millions of dollars.
It's a story that WPTV has been closely following for the last several months.
WATCH BELOW: Indian River County sheriff sues commissioners
In the suit filed late last week, Sheriff Eric Flowers alleges the County Commission did not properly discuss which particular budget line item requests it planned to reduce when approving a scaled-back budget increase.
The sheriff initially requested a $14.6 million increase for this fiscal year, later reducing that request to $12.2 million. Commissioners ultimately approved a $6.86 million increase.
"I think the narrative painted that we've reduced his budget is completely untrue. What we have done is reduce his request," said Indian River County Commissioner Deryl Loar.
WPTV spoke with the sheriff briefly, who said he could not comment on the pending litigation. However, last week he posted a video on YouTube accusing the county of "defunding the police."
"We need to be perfectly clear when it comes to things like 'defunding the police' … not true," Loar, who is a former sheriff for the county, said.
The sheriff's legal counsel, Adam Fetterman, told WPTV the county's response letter may have violated the Sunshine Law, or that the County Administrator made decisions himself without proper authority to do so.
The sheriff also plans to appeal the county's decision to the governor's office. Gov. Ron DeSantis could force the commission to approve the sheriff's full budget request.
Loar says the litigation marks an unwelcome first for the county.
"This has never been done in the history of Indian River County where a constitutional officer has sued the board of county commissioners over budget concerns," Loar said.
No court hearings have been scheduled yet, but the judge initially assigned to the case has already recused herself and asked a judge based in Martin County to handle the matter.
