Kootenai County commissioners trim and freeze budget requests as FY26 shortfall narrows

Kootenai County commissioners Eberlein, Duncan and Matari met July 8 to continue deliberations on the fiscal year 2026 budget and agreed to a series of cuts, freezes and limited approvals intended to narrow a projected shortfall while the county evaluates a possible cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for employees.

The actions matter because commissioners must balance competing requests for staff and services — including assessor and sheriff staffing, facilities maintenance and public-safety programs — against rising costs such as inmate medical services and county health insurance. Decisions this week will be carried forward to a follow-up meeting on Friday as staff supply prioritized lists and additional detail.

County budget staff member Brandy Falcon told the board the county’s preliminary numbers show a $202,000 surplus at a 3% tax increase but a $417,000 deficit at 2%, a $1 million deficit at 1% and about $1.65 million at a 0% increase. "So since our last meeting, there have been some changes that were made," Falcon said, and then outlined department-level reductions submitted by several offices.

Falcon also notified commissioners of two near-certain cost increases: roughly $65,000 to next year’s insurance premium and an $8,500 likely increase in the county audit contract, driven by higher auditor wages and additional work related to leases and capital projects. "If the board’s OK, I would like to go ahead and increase the budget for the audit next year," Falcon said; a commissioner replied, "If we can predict it, we should put it in there." Commissioners instructed staff to include those forecasted expenses in the FY26 budget.

Assessor staffing and conversion requests drew extended discussion. Cesar Kovacs, speaking for the assessor’s office, said the office is understaffed by national workload standards and asked commissioners to restore several requested full-time equivalents (FTEs). He cited a statutory duty, referencing the state law the office relies on: "the state legislature adopted 63-3-314 that basically says the commissioners shall provide ... the resources that we need to do our job," Kovacs said.

Commissioners pressed the assessor’s office on hiring history and training capacity. The board agreed to a compromise: they will approve a conversion of an existing residential appraisal technician to a residential appraiser I (line 40a) but cut a request for a brand-new residential appraiser I (line 4a) until the office demonstrates it can fill current vacancies and reach "full capacity." "Fill the ones you got and then come back," one commissioner said.

The board also discussed a technical conversion request for the assessor’s data/BI analyst (BIA). The assessor’s office described efficiencies and reductions in overtime tied to BIA work and asked to retain a technical staff member. Commissioners indicated willingness to support the conversion to preserve technical capacity, subject to final review.

Sheriff Robert Norris and other sheriff’s office speakers explained rising calls for service tied to mental-health incidents and growth, and the sheriff requested additional deputies, maintenance staff, and program support. Norris described recent high-profile emergency responses and said the county’s growth has increased patrol workload.

On the sheriff’s priorities, commissioners took the following actions: they agreed to approve two deputy positions that had previously been converted to school-resource officer (SRO) roles but to "freeze" funding and the onboarding costs for those positions so they are placeholders without current budgeted wages. The board also agreed to keep one of two requested senior maintenance positions and cut the other for now; and to approve a half-time offender-registration specialist to reduce statutory risk and workload in the sex-offender registry unit.

Captain Hyle of the sheriff’s office provided detail on offender-registration workload: the office currently manages about 334 registered offenders and averages roughly six registrant transactions per day, with each transaction taking on average about 1.5 hours. "A full time would be the best, but a half time person would be better than nothing to start," Captain Hyle told commissioners; the board approved the half-time position.

Prosecutor office personnel requests were discussed: the prosecutor (unnamed in the transcript) said requests to regrade attorneys are funded from departmental savings and asked the board to approve regrades and step increases for promoted attorneys. One commissioner indicated support for regrading an attorney to ATP 3 but asked the prosecutor to confirm step increases with HR to avoid FLSA issues before final approval.

On capital and one-time items, commissioners agreed to remove the assessor’s DDA capital request from the budget for now and revisit it after an executive-session HR discussion and additional schematics or estimates; the board left a land purchase for Search and Rescue in the draft budget because staff are pursuing an updated appraisal. The jail property-handling vacuum sealer was raised as a one-time capital item that commissioners said could be funded from interest income if available.

Commissioners repeatedly returned to the core trade-off: a higher COLA requires deeper cuts elsewhere. Falcon asked elected officials and department heads to return prioritized, line-item budgets showing 2023–2025 actuals and 2026 requests so the county can identify realistic operating B-budget cuts. "If the COLA is the issue, then everything else needs to just start getting cut," one commissioner said.

Public comment: Ron Hartman, a resident, urged the board to prioritize employee COLA and warned against subsidizing municipal law enforcement for cities that had not passed local levies, arguing that county funds should not offset lower city contributions. "Hayden comes in here and wants the rest of the county to subsidize their law enforcement," Hartman said.

Next steps: commissioners asked staff to gather prioritized lists from delinquent departments, model COLA scenarios (the board requested a range including roughly 1.5% to 2.5%), finalize the audit and insurance adjustments in the budget, and return with the assessor’s additional materials ahead of the next budget meeting Friday.

Ending: The board’s actions narrowed some staffing and capital requests and established temporary freezes and targeted approvals while staff refine numbers and provide documentation. Commissioners emphasized that final COLA decisions depend on the totality of cuts and unavoidable cost increases such as inmate medical care and employer health-benefit inflation.