St. Mary's County commissioners direct staff to pilot zero-based budgeting and tighten CIP approvals

St. Mary's County commissioners on Tuesday directed county finance and public-works staff to develop a pilot for zero-based budgeting (ZBB) and to change capital-improvement project (CIP) approvals so new projects undergo design and development cost estimates before appearing in the five-year plan.

The commissioners discussed ZBB during a Department of Finance presentation led by Director Vanetta Van Cleef. Van Cleef told the board, “What is zero-based budgeting? Every expense must be justified for each new period starting from a zero base,” and said the approach would require line-by-line justification rather than inflating prior budgets.

Supporters said ZBB could increase transparency and make spending align more closely with county priorities. Van Cleef and staff outlined pros including clearer priority setting and potential efficiency gains, and cons including a substantial up-front administrative burden and a multi-year learning curve. Staff recommended a pilot approach rather than an immediate countywide rollout.

Deputy Director Gary Whipple, who led the CIP portion of the presentation, described a complementary change to capital planning: splitting project work into planning, development and construction phases and requiring a design-and-development cost estimate before placing new projects in the five-year CIP. “We'd like to bring [a new project] to you at a budget work session with our review of the project with the end user,” Whipple said, and not auto-populate loosely scoped requests into year five of the CIP.

Commissioners asked how ZBB would treat recurring issues such as pooled vacancies, termination payouts and health-insurance budgeting. Staff described a pooled-vacancy method that would estimate vacancies across the organization rather than loading every division with full vacancy costs, and recommended holding a ZBB transition reserve for roughly three years while the new process matures.

The board expressed broad support for a cautious pilot. Commissioner Mike Hewitt said he was “excited about this concept” and emphasized that the board’s goal should not be to reduce services, while other commissioners urged maintaining flexibility during the transition. The board asked staff to identify one or more candidate departments for a pilot and return with a proposed implementation plan.

The county administrator and staff said the first year would be a heavy lift for finance and department managers, with training and tool development required before a wider rollout. Commissioners and staff also discussed stakeholder engagement for external elected officials and agencies whose budgets interact with county budgeting.

The board reached consensus to move forward with staff developing a pilot plan for ZBB and to implement the proposed CIP design-and-development gate for new capital projects. Staff will return with recommended pilot departments and implementation details for commissioners’ review.

The direction given is not a formal ordinance or budget adoption; specific budgetary actions will be brought back for formal consideration in later work sessions and hearings.

The county administrator, finance staff and the capital projects team were instructed to present pilot recommendations and a timeline for implementation at a future meeting.