Commissioners renew 911 chair lease; treasurer recommends quarterly payments to earn interest

The Board of Johnson County Commissioners approved renewal of a three-year lease for specially designed chairs used in the county 911 center and accepted a recommendation to pay quarterly rather than annually to earn additional interest on county funds.

Heath Brandt, 911 director, said the chairs are in continuous use at the 24-hour center and are covered for repairs and replacement under the lease. "These chairs are... specially designed chairs, and they're expensive. And if we were to buy them, they would cost us about $20,000 for 10 of them," Brandt said, adding that the leasing company replaces chairs annually as part of the agreement.

A commissioner noted the annual replacement schedule and recommended switching the payment schedule to quarterly, telling Brandt the treasury can invest funds between payments and that paying quarterly would increase county interest earnings. "If you do the annual payment, you only save $3,367.20. If we pay it quarterly, treasure invests those funds through that period of time, and we make more money doing it that way," the commissioner said.

The board voted to approve the consent-item lease renewal with the quarterly payment recommendation. The transcript does not specify the exact lease vendor name, the total annual cost, or whether the vendor accepted the quarterly schedule; those details were not recorded in the meeting minutes read in the transcript.

Why it matters: The item affects 911 center operations (staff comfort and equipment uptime) and county treasury practice on vendor payments. The lease provides ongoing replacement and repairs at no additional equipment procurement cost; changing the payment cadence is an administrative step that can modestly increase interest earnings for county funds.