Lake County staff roll out line‑item budget process; manager says new tools will improve transparency

Lake County Manager Candace Bridal and finance staff on Sept. 23 presented a new, line‑by‑line budget process to the Board of County Commissioners, saying the change is meant to give department directors more visibility into how revenue and expenses are coded and to improve long‑term planning.

Bridal, joined by finance staff including Will Enwon, told commissioners the county is moving toward a standardized packet each department will fill out — including a grants tab, account‑code detail and capital requests — and using Tyler’s positional budgeting module to model payroll and staffing scenarios. "This is the first time we've used this budget process," Bridal said during the session.

Staff said the packet asks departments to list grants with the grant name, award amount, match requirements and whether a grant is multiyear, so the county will retain that information if staff leave. The presentation also showed year‑to‑date actuals (through August), prior‑year activity, the 2026 preliminary budget and notes from staff meetings with department directors.

Why it matters

County staff said the new process should reduce miscoding of expenses, make contingency spending more visible and support multi‑year capital planning. Commissioners asked how certain items — historic IGAs, district‑level revenues and a recent large land purchase — should be recorded so the public and commissioners see the same fiscal picture.

Details from the presentation

- Grants and documentation: Departments must document grant award amounts, whether awards are reimbursement or lump‑sum, matches and multiyear terms so grants remain budgeted and searchable.

- Account‑code cleanup: Staff reviewed the countywide chart of accounts and plan to deactivate codes unused for multiple years so they do not reappear on invoices or reports.

- Positional budgeting and payroll: Finance will use Tyler’s positional budgeting module to model staffing scenarios and expects final payroll numbers in November–December once insurance and benefit costs are finalized.

- Intergovernmental agreements (IGAs): Staff flagged several aging IGAs that had not been reflected consistently in department budgets; Bridal said finance is discussing consolidating IGAs into a single set of accounts so recurring commitments are visible in a two‑year lookback.

- Contingency and commissioner accounts: The commissioners’ contingency in the preliminary packet shows $15,000, which staff described as an amount historically used for occasional emergency expenditures; Bridal said that is currently calculated as $5,000 per commissioner.

- Certificate of participation (COP) debt service: Staff said they are establishing a standalone COP expense account to track debt service rather than lumping payments into professional services. Staff described the payment schedule as biannual (June 15 and Nov. 15) and said the county has the option to prepay the COP without penalty; the exact amortization and outstanding schedule will be attached to vendor records so future budgets can show the liability clearly.

- Assets and capital requests: Staff demonstrated a Power BI asset/capital dashboard used by a peer jurisdiction to show multi‑year capital needs by department. They told commissioners the county is moving toward an asset management approach that would identify deferred maintenance, allow smaller annual set‑asides for large projects (for example, a landfill liner), and consolidate duplicate capital requests where multiple departments request similar equipment (cameras, radios, etc.). Michael (commissioner) raised a $3,000,000 landfill liner request that staff said should be on the radar for multi‑year planning.

Commissioner questions and follow‑up

Commissioners pressed staff on where certain revenues appear in the general fund and how department‑level budgets will reflect centralized expenses such as utilities, fleet and IT subscriptions. Bridal and Enwon said finance will reassign operating costs to the appropriate facilities or operations budgets (rather than leaving them in individual department buckets) and will circulate updated spreadsheets before preprints are released.

Staff said they will: tighten account‑code categories, deactivate retired lines (for example, coronavirus relief lines after final closeouts), attach vendor agreements to payment records, and return with clarified revenue flow for specific items such as the Laura distribution and assessor receipts.

Ending

Bridal and Will Enwon asked commissioners to review the front‑page numbers in the packet and identify any changes before staff finalizes preprints; they said the county will accept changes through mid‑December but aim to present a cleaner, more accountable budget book this fall.