The Santa Fe Regional Emergency Communications Center Board of Directors on Thursday, February 2025 approved a recommended fiscal year 2026 operating and capital budget and agreed to forward the recommendation to the member jurisdictions for final action.

The recommendation approved by the board calls for a RECC FY26 budget totaling $7,537,092 and capital requests with a combined total of $2,690,115. Director Lujan read the proposed distributions for capital contributions: $1,185,383 requested from the City of Santa Fe, $20,000 from the Town of Edgewood and $1,492,733 from Santa Fe County, with the three jurisdictions together requested to share total capital costs of $2,690,115.

Why it matters: the RECC budget covers core 9-1-1 operations, capital replacements and software/hardware renewals for the countywide communications center. The RECC joint powers agreement requires the board to review and forward an annual operating and capital budget to the member governments before March 1.

Board discussion focused on major capital items and the timing of jurisdictional approvals. Director Lujan described the largest capital requests: a primary CAD server upgrade and matching disaster-recovery hardware, a Motorola MCC 7,500E server and six laptops to enable remote dispatch capability, RapidSOS Unite subscription and related multimedia/AI call-handling features, replacement of aging dispatch chairs and dispatch computers, a vehicle to transport redundant equipment, and a gated parking area for staff. Lujan said RapidSOS Unite would add live transcription, AI alarm processing for some nonemergency lines and multimedia sharing for responders, and described the primary server replacement as necessary because existing host hardware is nearly seven years old and creates compatibility problems with newer disaster‑recovery hosts.

Several board members stressed that approval by the RECC board is a recommendation only and that each member government must ultimately approve spending through its own budget process. County Manager Schaffer told the board that the county will treat the RECC recommendation as a request the county will consider in its budgeting process and that the board of county commissioners will make the final county funding decision.

Director Lujan and board members also discussed timing: the JPA requires submission to member governments before March 1; several members said the RECC could schedule a special meeting if jurisdictions needed more time to review the package.

The board voted to approve the recommended FY26 budget and contributions. The motion passed with all members present voting in favor. The board directed staff to forward the recommendation and accompanying attachments (fund summary, revenue detail, capital requests and line-item detail) to each member jurisdiction for their budget processes.