Adams County departments present 2026 budget requests; treasurer urges added staff to reduce errors

Department heads presented their proposed 2026 budget requests to the Adams County Administrative & Finance Committee and described key changes and staffing needs.

Treasure Everett said the treasurer's office used three-year averages for projections but is processing far fewer transactions this year because of reduced staff. Everett told the committee the office is managing more than 440 REM properties and that during tax season staff were processing roughly one transaction every three minutes, leaving little time for reconciliations. Everett recommended adding staff to the treasurer’s office and said the county could cover the deputy treasurer’s wages in part because neither Everett nor another named staffer use county health benefits.

Finance Director Kyle described the process: the budget presented is the departments’ requests. Kyle said finance and the county administrator (Cynthia) will later meet with individual department heads to review and tighten requests.

IT Director reported the department's proposed increases were mainly salary and software maintenance; many software contracts have scheduled annual increases. The county’s HR budget was presented separately for 2026 because it is being split out from finance; the HR director explained the separation and noted certain contracted services and preemployment testing will move from finance to HR. The HR director said the new HR budget includes a safety program contract historically paid under finance and that some software renewals (ClearCompany) required lump-sum payments in prior years, explaining spikes in contracted-services lines.

Corporation counsel proposed a reduced outside-counsel line compared with recent years but said the estimate is imperfect because of a scheduled trial next year and consultation with the treasurer and finance director is ongoing. The counsel said the outside-counsel estimate of $185,300 was calculated by annualizing seven months of payments; prior-year spending was $513,547.

No committee motions were made; the materials represent department requests. Kyle said he will merge accounts for final budget presentations to enable year-to-year comparisons after accounts are separated for organizational reasons. The committee will receive the audit presentation next month; schedule work continues to meet statutory deadlines for budget publication and county board review.

Key upcoming dates noted by staff: October 3 (committee meeting), October 14 (county board budget presentation), and Oct. 15 (administrative finance committee finalize proposed budget for publication).