Arapahoe County finance leaders ask commissioners to fund staff and tools to handle growth, grant compliance

Todd Weaver, finance, told the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners at a study session that the county’s finance operations have not kept pace with county growth and asked commissioners to make several staffing and modest recurring funding commitments as part of consideration of additional revenue from Proposition 1A.

The recommendations are intended to ensure continued compliance with grant requirements, provide coverage for accounts payable and payroll, reduce risk of audit findings, and free finance staff to provide more department support ahead of the 2026 budget-development process. Weaver said the final decisions on how to allocate the 1A revenue will be made through the 2026 budget-development process.

Weaver summarized current capacity constraints and growth metrics: finance had about 30 full-time equivalents in 2015 and 32 in recent years, while county staffing and the county budget have grown substantially. Accounts payable activity rose from roughly 26,000 payments in 2020 to about 30,000 most recently. Payroll responsibility increased…