NEW ULM — Brown County Commissioners turned down Sheriff Jason Seidl’s request for additional deputy and deputy sergeant positions for the 2027 budget Tuesday by a 4-1 vote.

“We’re understaffed compared to other comparable-sized counties,” Seidl told the commissioners. “When Sheriff Hoffmann took office (in 2007), he went to 24-hour coverage as part of his campaign promises without adding staff. We’ve slowly added staff to be where we should be.”

In his request, Seidl said Lyon County is comparable to Brown County. He said Brown County has 14 licensed deputies, compared to 19 for Lyon County which Seidl said offers service 20 hours a day, compared to 24 in Brown County.

“Even with the request to add two positions, we’d still be below them,” Seidl said.

He said in April 2026, the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board adopted a new policy model in which domestic requests for service are considered high priority calls and must be treated accordingly by dispatchers and officers.

Dispatchers must assign minimally, two officers to a known or suspected domestic abuse call. If only one officer is available, reasonable attempts must be made to obtain another officer. After receiving a domestic call, officers must respond promptly according to the information they received.

“I know we will be backing up New Ulm, Sleepy Eye and Springfield Police and they will all back us up,” said Seidl. “We have more than one domestic (call) a day. With the staffing we have, we have one officer on days, one in afternoons and one on nights, so we often request help from other agencies.”

He said adding two more deputies would help a lot, especially on evening and weekend calls.

“Last weekend, we were down to one deputy (per shift) the whole weekend,” said Seidl.

Commissioner Dave Borchert, who is also the New Ulm police chief, said adding a deputy and deputy sergeant would cost about $400,822 initially.

“There are options available, some of which I have done with my own agency,” he said. “We can do nothing, look at shift changes that are more affordable and possible mutual aid agreements with patrol.”

“I’m in favor of adding one deputy,” said Commissioner Brian Braun.

“I think we’re fine where we are at,” said Commissioner Tony Berg.

“I think we’re doing a wonderful job,” said Commissioner Jeff Veerkamp.

Commissioner Scott Windschitl said the coming year will be a “tough budget year.”

Action came on a motion by Braun and seconded by Berg, who cast the only vote in favor of the request.

Seidl said he can’t predict what will happen in the future.

“We just had a murder in Hanska. I’ll ask for this again next year,” he said.