Roger Fonstock, the county’s executive director, presented fiscal year 2026 budget highlights for IT, building management and GIS at the Aug. 15 administration committee meeting and outlined staff efforts to reduce operating costs, reassign some positions and reallocate expenses to special-revenue funds.

Fonstock said departments reduced line items compared with 2024: personnel services were lower, contractual services and commodities were trimmed, and the team identified $153,006.87 in additional cuts by eliminating a vacant copy-center analyst position and trimming repairs, electricity and cleaning-supply budgets. He said the building management department reduced headcount by one vacant print-shop position and planned to prorate Mill Creek administrative duties among three staff instead of hiring a dedicated coordinator.

Fonstock described GIS revenue rising “27% over 2024” after fee adjustments tied to recorded-fee increases and said GIS will move certain licensing costs from contractual lines into capital software licensing; he identified a capital request of roughly $452,000 for ESRI software and associated tools. He also described contingency planning for capital projects, including options that assume no county contribution to capital or varying contributions such as $2 million.

Why it matters: The budgets affect internal services relied upon by county departments. GIS fee increases and software capital requests affect how departments pay for mapping and data services; print-shop and building-management staffing changes affect turnaround times for county printing and facilities services.

ROE lease dispute and next steps: Committee Member Miss Juby (first reference: Miss Juby) criticized removal of the Regional Office of Education (ROE) lease from building-management lines and said the transfer “can only be done through resolution as it was resolution 20 dash 111.” She said moving the lease without a formal resolution violates board procedure and vowed to raise the issue at future meetings until it is resolved.

Fonstock said finance staff had suggested moving the line to ROE’s cost center during budget review but that staff can restore the line item to building management and work with ROE and finance to produce a resolution. The chair and other members asked for a copy of the lease; the chair directed staff to prepare a resolution for the September meeting so the board and ROE can take formal action. Fonstock said Charles (finance staff) would add the line item back into the building-management budget during the meeting’s follow-up.

Questions and clarifications: Committee members asked about operational impacts: print-shop work may require 48–72 hours’ advance notice after the vacant analyst position was removed; staff said emergency printing may still be possible but could carry higher costs. Committee members pressed for clarity about how administrative overhead for special service areas (Mill Creek) is allocated and whether special-revenue funds should cover certain costs.

Ending: Staff will provide the ROE lease copy to committee members, prepare a resolution for September, and return with updated budget line items and capital-scenario options for the committee’s review.