Commissioners debate capital ranking approach as $9M county core and $19M total requests surface

County finance staff and commissioners spent a substantial portion of the May 6 budget workshop on capital spending requests and how to prioritize them for FY2026.

"We took the category and ranked them that way," Rebecca Romero, accounting specialist, told the commission as she described the capital committee's approach, which ranks requests within categories such as building and facilities, software, equipment and vehicles. Romero said the county core capital request for the coming year is about $9,000,000 and that the total capital requests across county core, component units and outside agencies add up to roughly $19,000,000, although some multi-year project totals extend to 2027–2030.

The nut graf: commissioners debated methodology. Commissioner Rob said the department-by-department ranking is useful for committee work but makes it difficult at the board level to choose which projects to fund across the county. "I would really like to see this entire list but prioritized with the most important capital item rather than the most important by department," Rob said. He proposed a composite 1-through-N ranking so the board can identify the top projects to fund within an expected capital spending limit.

Romero explained the current approach grew from prior practice and from the capital committee's work to protect high-priority items within departments — for example, the sheriff's patrol vehicles are prioritized within vehicles so they are more likely to be funded. She said some items will carry over because they are close to completion or are multi-year projects, and that the ClearGov import created some variations from earlier summaries. She also noted grants included as capital in this year's ClearGov file make direct year-to-year comparisons difficult.

Commissioners discussed specific projects and constraints. Romero said the Jonah parking lot project for a component unit is ranked No. 1 among component requests because it needs $80,000 from the county to complete a grant-funded project; "they don't want them to lose that grant," she said. Commissioners questioned whether certain recurring purchases — for example, the Events Complex request for $25,000 a year for tables, chairs and stage components — should be classified as capital or covered in operating budgets. Romero and others agreed items under the county's capital threshold should be reviewed and potentially treated as operating expenses.

The capital committee told commissioners the ranking was done by category last year and that practice was continued to ensure department-critical items — like sheriff patrol vehicles — stayed at the top of their category. Several commissioners said they would prefer a single prioritized list to guide decisions if the board must trim capital to a specific dollar ceiling.

Ending: Commissioners asked staff and the capital committee to revisit the ranking and to present a composite prioritized list at the next workshop. No binding action was taken; the committee was asked to return with revised prioritization so the board can identify which capital projects should be included in the FY2026 budget.