Commissioners narrow FY2013 county-department requests; privatization and FTE cuts drive savings

St. Mary''s County commissioners on March 13 reviewed the county-department portion of the proposed FY2013 budget and directed staff to fold several administrator-recommended reductions into the public-hearing draft.

The changes reflected two large prior policy decisions: the planned privatization of Marcy House and the removal of the housing function from the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). County staff reported a personnel-cost reduction for Marcy House of $351,519 and elimination of 4.5 full-time equivalents. For DECD housing, staff totaled a reduction of $1,229,703 and 19 positions; one housing position will remain in DECD through about November and then be removed.

Why it matters: those cuts account for a sizeable share of the county-department decrease between the March 9 request and the administrator'recommended figures. On the summary sheet commissioners viewed, county-department requests fell from about $46.2 million to roughly $45.9 million after the administrator's adjustments.

Key details and other departmental changes presented by Chief Financial Officer Elaine Kramer and deputy CFO Jeanette Cudmore included: - Public Safety & Information Technology: removal of a radio-frequency technician (savings reported at $80,408) and elimination of a grant-funded emergency planner (savings reported at $80,571); an addition proposed for a deputy director in Information Technology at a salary-and-benefits cost of $122,823. Kramer identified the deputy director's duties in a memo in the budget book. - FTE realignments tied to an August reorganization that combined Aging and Human Services; staff said many position changes were accounting realignments rather than net staff reductions. - Vehicle replacements: the sheriff's 10 replacement vehicles (reported cost moved into the sheriff's budget) total about $137,081 as previously approved; other vehicle requests in public works and enterprise funds were left for commissioner direction, with highway vehicle replacements listed at roughly $6.3 million in the DPW request (exempt-financing cost). Commissioners directed staff to move individual replacement costs into the relative department budgets and indicated intent to keep the requested replacements in the FY2013 package unless otherwise directed. - Nonpublic school bus contracts: the administrator proposed a package that narrows the contractors' asks while moving rates closer to historical norms; the recommended net increase for nonpublic school bus funding was discussed as a modest but material increase (figures presented in the budget book and the March 13 packet).

The board asked staff to update a small reconciliation error in the packet and to provide corrected sheets for the public-hearing draft. Commissioners scheduled further review of entities and grants in a second half of the session.

Ending: Staff will bring revised spreadsheets and the administrator'recommended county-department reconciliation to the public-hearing draft; commissioners left direction in place to proceed with the reductions described above and to move vehicle costs into operating departments for FY2013 planning.