Susie Moon, Cowlitz County finance manager, and George Moya, juvenile court administrator, told the Board of Commissioners that juvenile detention and probation spending this year has been driven by staffing gaps, episodic population changes and internal service billings.

Moon said the juvenile detention program has underrealized intergovernmental revenue (listed in materials as $1,000 in budget with no receipts to date) and has exceeded the goods-and-services budget for room-and-board charges. "Goods and services had a budget of just shy of $5,056,000, and they have exceeded that," Moon said. She said two revenue lines—miscellaneous revenue (about $800 so far) and an other-financing-sources transfer of ARPA funds (budgeted at roughly $33,000)—will be adjusted in a fourth-quarter budget amendment.

On personnel, Moon reported the detention program shows 27.75 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions filled and about 2.5 FTE open. "Two of those are gonna be detention officers. Those vacancies account for about a 127,000 in payroll costs through August, before factoring in any benefits," she said, and noted that when benefits are included the department would be slightly over budget—"roughly $20,000"—for personnel costs.

Supplies and contracted services remain under budget once internal service billings are removed. Moon said services had expended about $472,000 of a $529,000 budget but "about 380,000" of that was internal-service billing; removing that makes services significantly under budget.

For probation, Moon said intergovernmental revenue had a $406,000 budget and $268,000 in receipts to date, including about $203,000 from state grant funding. The probation unit has 13 filled FTE and two current openings; personnel expenditures are about $900,000 of a $1.6 million budget.

Commissioners asked about overtime and hiring timelines. Moon said the county audited the department's payroll and verified overtime pay complied with the union agreement. The county has been tracking overtime month-to-month by position and provided a departmental write-up showing that spikes in April–May and in August arose from operational choices and leave: the department opened a third housing pod in May for safety reasons (separating rival youth), and July historically produces more staff leave. Moon said hiring remains active but lengthy: from first interview to being on the floor typically takes 4½–5 months, with an initial five-week in‑house training followed later by an 80‑hour state academy requirement.

George Moya described the operational drivers: "We're at the mercy of our personnel. We're at the mercy of our population," and explained that vacancies, interviews and training create unavoidable coverage gaps that produce overtime. He added that a restructured lead/shift-supervisor position reduced shift-supervisor overtime compared with prior practice.

Next steps: county staff said they will include the adjustments in the fourth-quarter budget amendment materials and will provide additional detail to commissioners who request it. No formal vote was recorded at the meeting.

Ending

Officials said additional financial detail and the department's overtime trend charts will be provided to the board; the administration plans a fourth-quarter budget amendment to align budgeted revenues and expenses for juvenile programs.