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County moves benefits out of probation user-fee budget after statute review; staff warn of sustainability risks
Summary
Delaware County staff said they removed benefits from probation user-fee budgets to comply with statute limiting fee use to salary supplements; presenters warned removing benefits stresses county general funds and leaves the user-fee fund less flexible for programming and monitoring.
Delaware County budget staff told the council they removed employee benefits from several probation user-fee budgets after reviewing state statute language limiting fee-funded uses to salary supplementation.
Emily Anderson said the county had been putting benefits in user-fee budgets for several years but learned the statute "explicitly says to supplement salaries" and does not authorize paying benefits. She described moving about $30,000 in part-time funds into the user-fee account as a swap so county general could take on benefit costs for certain positions.
Why it matters: user-fee funds have been used to pay for probation-related programming, monitoring and some personnel costs. County staff warned that removing benefits will reduce the user-fee fund's capacity for non-personnel expenses (for example, juvenile electronic monitoring), and that without new revenue the user-fee fund could be depleted.
Numbers and choices discussed: staff said the probation user-fee fund collected roughly $244,000 in 2024 and that the county's requested budgets approach the same scale. Anderson and Chief Probation Officer Jeff Hancher said the department is managing with a multi-year equipment replacement plan and other adjustments but expressed concern that benefit costs (particularly health insurance) have grown and make the fee-funded model unsustainable.
Next steps: staff proposed moving specific benefit lines to county general and continuing to track collections; no formal appropriation decisions were made during the session. Council members asked staff to provide confirmed revenue and expense numbers and to show how the proposed swaps affect the user-fee fund's end-of-year balance.
Ending: Council members acknowledged the statutory constraint; staff emphasized the tradeoffs between statutory compliance and the county's ability to fund probation programming and monitoring with fee revenue.
