Story County reviews county attorney budget as grants end; opioid funds placed in countywide account

Story County officials reviewed the County Attorney’s revenue and expenditure projections during a Feb. 6 budget work session, noting several expired grants, ongoing fine-collection revenues, staffing adjustments and a decision to house opioid-related positions and funding in the countywide account.

The discussion centered on revenue sources such as seized-property sales, fine-collection receipts and multiple grant programs, and on expense lines including staffing, training, professional research subscriptions and juvenile representation costs.

County Attorney Tim Meals described several line items that had changed since the last budget cycle, including a placeholder entry of $50 tied to a now-ended grant from the Governor’s Office of Drug Control and a three‑year victim‑witness grant that previously funded an additional victim‑witness coordinator. "We have a placeholder amount sitting there of $50," Meals said. He also identified a Violence Against Women grant that covers a domestic‑violence prosecutor salary of about $22,000 and said the victim‑witness grant provided roughly $50,000 for coordinator support.

Elijah Hansen, operations manager of the Story County Attorney’s Office, said the office will reduce an "extra help" line by about $23,000 and move that amount into the pay plan because the board authorized a half‑time administrative assistant position that has since been filled. "We will lessen that line 23,000 and then move up the pay plan, 23,000," Hansen said.

Meals outlined other revenue and expense details: fines collection statewide for the office is projected roughly in the mid‑hundreds of thousands — he cited a fines-collection projection of about $225,000 and said the county attorney's fines collection account holds funds in multiple accounts, including approximately $49,000–$50,000 in forfeited and seized property and roughly $440,000 in an attorney fines collection account. He also noted a $35,000 line for county attorney‑level fines collection. Several of those figures were stated as estimates during the session.

On operating expenses, Meals said the office is maintaining prior budgets for taxable fringe benefits (cell phone stipends), office supplies and postage; the training budget for attorneys is being held steady despite turnover because the office remains "fully staffed for the moment." He said the office is considering whether to continue purchasing hardbound Iowa Code volumes for courtroom use, noting some attorneys prefer online research services.

Meals and staff discussed subscription and investigative services used for collections, including Thomson Reuters CLEAR and Westlaw research tools. He described CLEAR as a locating service the office uses to find individuals for collection or to identify employers for wage garnishment, and he said the subscription is purchased through a Thomson Reuters arrangement.

The office also expects a change to a software‑based fax solution after consultation with Joe Wakeman, the county’s new IT director. Meals said Wakeman "suggested we change our fax from actual fax machines to software based faxing," which the office expects should reduce telecommunications costs once implemented.

Budgeting for juvenile representation — primarily process‑server costs for juvenile court cases — was noted as a line that "doesn't change much," Meals said. The board also discussed a decision made last year to deposit opioid grant funds into the countywide account; those funds and positions tied to the opioid program are being budgeted under countywide services so the board can allocate them across programs if needed. The countywide account balance was reported during the session and the budget includes a modest revenue projection for the coming year.

The session included line‑item discussion about equipment replacement and office furniture following recent remodeling, dues and memberships that fund the drug task force (including rent and investigative expenses), and the possible annual replacement schedule for aging office furniture in the Ames and Nevada offices.

No formal motions or votes on budget adoption were recorded during the work session; the meeting was a staff presentation and board review of proposed revenue and expenditure lines.

Less critical budget items discussed near the end of the session included postage, employee mileage, and continued use of Iowa Workforce Development databases for locating employed debtors for collection actions. The county will revisit specific line items as staff refine coding for new opioid‑program hires and as IT implements the proposed faxing change.