The program provides security and transportation for Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and county commissioners. Cordero-Stutz said it costs taxpayers about $4.1 million annually and that eliminating it would help address a budget shortfall she attributes to the county’s adopted budget.

In a letter sent hours after the sheriff announced the plan, Levine Cava called the change a significant security challenge, citing recent violence against elected officials in Minnesota. She asked Cordero-Stutz to provide a detailed transition plan before the program ends.

The mayor also disputed the sheriff’s account of the department’s funding. Levine Cava’s letter said the county approved a $1.23 billion budget for the Sheriff’s Office this year, its largest ever.

The disagreement follows a budget standoff in which the sheriff sought about $42 million more than Levine Cava recommended. County commissioners rejected the additional request.

Cordero-Stutz framed the program’s elimination as part of a broader effort to scrutinize public spending. A day before her letter, she appeared with Gov. Ron DeSantis at a roundtable supporting a proposed property-tax measure, Amendment 3.

“An expense should never go unquestioned simply because that is what government has always paid for,” Cordero-Stutz said. She added that she takes seriously both protecting the community and spending public money wisely.

The planned end to the program puts the county’s budget dispute in direct tension with questions of how security for elected officials will be maintained. Levine Cava has asked for details on the transition, but the letters described no replacement arrangements.