Staff lists seven new positions and 29 reclassifications in FY26 requests; county has not included expansions in continuation budget

Roche, the county budget director, told commissioners that departments submitted expansion requests but staff had not included any expansion positions in the continuation budget while the county addresses the FY26 shortfall.

Nut graf: Departments documented operational needs: seven new positions across multiple divisions with total estimated cost (including equipment/vehicles) of about $870,000, plus roughly $268,000 for 29 reclassifications that would net to about $260,000 after related offsets.

On expansion details, Roche summarized three categories of expansion requests: “expansion-other,” new positions, and reclassifications. The seven new positions listed by staff are an events coordinator and manager for the arena and events center, an assistant emergency management coordinator, a deputy fire marshal, a planning technician, a zoning compliance officer, a lead accountant in human services, and an active living center superintendent plus a park superintendent. Roche said the seven new positions together (including equipment and vehicles) total about $870,000.

Multiple department leaders described operational need during the presentation. Jason, who leads the county’s emergency management and also supports fire services, said additional emergency management staff are required to plan and run large tabletop and full-scale exercises, to meet LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee) requirements tied to hazardous materials reporting, and to sustain response and recovery capacity for events like last year’s Hurricane Helene. He also framed the new emergency management position as a retention and career-path tool: “we want to try to give them the capacity to grow within the department as well,” Jason said.

Susie, who spoke for planning and zoning, said her division has operated at roughly half its pre-2010 staffing level since positions were cut during the recession. She described the planning technician as an entry-level position to provide counter redundancy and avoid pulling field enforcement officers back to the office; she also said the county currently has only two zoning compliance officers to cover the whole county.

Suzanne Moose, the health and human services business director, described the lead accountant role as focused on maximizing federal and state reimbursements. Moose said the county brings in about $20 million annually in federal reimbursements tied to human services programs and argued the position would help ensure coding and billing capture available funds: “It would pay for itself because it does get reimbursement, 50% reimbursement,” she said.

Roche emphasized that the expansion requests were presented for commissioners’ awareness and documentation; none of the expansion items were included in the FY26 continuation budget numbers because staff first seeks to close the existing gap. Roche offered that some reclassifications could be repurposed positions and therefore have smaller net cost because the position exists in a different form in the current budget.

Ending: Commissioners asked for more detail on individual position line items and revenue offsets; Roche and department heads said staff will provide additional documentation if the board wants to consider funding expansions while also addressing the shortfall.