Lake County manager outlines new line‑by‑line budget process, pushes for grant tracking and asset planning

Lake County Manager Candace Bridal on Sept. 23 asked the Board of County Commissioners to review a new line‑by‑line preliminary budget that uses positional payroll modeling and centralized grant and vendor tracking.

Bridal said the new process separates revenue and expenses and requires each department to document grants, multi‑year awards and the staff responsible for each award. “We budget for revenues and expenses separately,” Bridal told the board, describing a repeated request that grant lines include award amounts, match requirements and reimbursement details so grants do not disappear when a staff member leaves.

Why it matters: Commissioners were shown tools and policy changes intended to make county finances more transparent and auditable, reduce coding errors and reserve general‑fund capacity for obligations that are not revenue‑backed. Staff said a clearer capital and asset inventory will help the county plan multiyear repairs rather than relying on last‑minute contingency spending.

Key details - Grant and vendor tracking: Departments received a standardized worksheet and were asked to record each grant on its own tab; finance said the information is stored in Airtable and linked to Tyler where practical so a departing staffer won’t leave the county unaware of active awards. Bridal said the change responds to past examples where knowledge of a grant or intergovernmental agreement (IGA) left with an individual. - Chart‑of‑accounts cleanup: Finance and IT will deactivate account codes that haven’t been used for multiple years and reclassify items that staff repeatedly miscode (for example, training vs. personnel benefits). Bridal said the move will reduce accidental miscoding and simplify reporting. - Intergovernmental agreements and IGAs: Bridal pointed to a weed‑control IGA originating in 2022 that a partner recently asked the county to sign or re‑execute; the county wants a single place to budget IGA obligations so multi‑year payments are visible during look‑backs. - Certificate of Participation (COP): Staff recommended recording COP debt service in a dedicated account rather than in professional services. Commissioners were told the COP is a roughly 20‑year finance instrument with biannual payments on June 15 and Nov. 15; staff also said the COP can be prepaid without penalty. (Exact annual totals were discussed in the meeting but are recorded in county debt schedules.) - Payroll modeling and positional budgeting: Finance turned on a positional budgeting module in Tyler this year to model staffing scenarios, estimate total payroll and produce more accurate multi‑year forecasts. Bridal said final payroll figures will be refined when year‑end insurance and benefit rates are finalized in late fall. - Capital asset planning: Staff previewed a Power BI dashboard being developed to inventory county assets, log deferred maintenance and collect multiyear capital requests by department. The goal is a 1‑ and 5‑year capital plan that shows costs, requestors and proposed funding cadence.

Discussion versus direction - Discussion: Commissioners asked how routine items (utilities, website, postage, legal fees) should be budgeted and whether items historically coded to the commissioners’ budget should move to operations or central departments. Staff explained the rationale for reallocating line items so operational costs sit in the department that consumes the service. - Direction/assignments: Staff said they will (1) deactivate unused account codes, (2) attach agreements to vendors in the financial system so future reviewers understand payment purpose, (3) continue to centralize IGA tracking so multi‑year obligations are visible, and (4) provide updated payroll estimates after insurance rates are final. - Formal decision: No formal vote or budget adoption occurred at the session; the presentation was a preliminary work session and commissioners were asked to submit desired line edits for the preprint.

Clarifying details mentioned at the session included a $15,000 commissioners’ contingency placeholder (presented as $5,000 per commissioner), a land purchase that had $950,000 budgeted earlier in the year (staff said it will be reclassified if not spent) and an annual maintenance estimate for asset‑management grooming tools and vehicle fuel that staff estimated in the low thousands per year. Staff also noted a need to purchase replacement wheels and spares for aging equipment where parts are no longer manufactured.

What’s next: Staff asked commissioners to identify any expense‑line changes now so they can be captured before the preprint and said budgets can be adjusted again in the fall as final payroll and insurance numbers are available. Bridal and finance staff signaled they will present the consolidated budget book and five‑year projections in the fall budget cycle for formal review and adoption.

Ending: The county presented the new workflow as a move toward stronger internal controls and clearer capital planning; staff asked the board to review the preprint and return any coding or policy questions quickly so the county can finalize the budget by the standard fall deadlines.