Sedgwick County commissioners agreed to add a recurring weekly budget discussion to their Wednesday staff meetings so commissioners can publicly vet potential motions and questions before formal budget adoption in August.

County staff said the standing item will be used to raise questions, preview potential motions and report results from the county's online budget simulator. "This is an opportunity for us to ask questions relative to the budget...and really use this time to vet some of that out so that on adoption day, there's no surprises," said Tom (staff member).

The change responds in part to the county's public engagement process: staff said data from the county's budget simulator, which the public could use through the day of the meeting, will be presented to the board the following Tuesday and can inform the Wednesday discussions. "Those Wednesday conversations with the standing budget agenda item would also be an opportunity for us to report out anything that you hear through that process that you want to make sure that we communicate back out to the public," said Lindsay (staff member).

Staff outlined a timeline for the coming weeks: simulator results will be presented Tuesday; a capital-improvement-plan (CIP) workshop is scheduled for June 9 to discuss the fire training ground, the ConCare complex and the regional forensic science center; June 17 is described as the county manager's deadline for decisions to be included in the recommended budget; the recommended budget and the "last update" will be published in mid‑July; and budget adoption is scheduled for Aug. 20. Staff warned that after the recommended budget and last update are published, the total budget cannot be raised, only reduced or reallocated.

Staff emphasized the standing weekly item is intended to reduce surprise proposals on adoption day and allow commissioners to coordinate with finance before formal votes. Commissioners referenced the item as a recurring opportunity to raise new ideas or follow up on items not previously included in the proposed budget.

No formal motions or votes were recorded on this topic during the meeting; the discussion produced direction from staff to add the recurring agenda item and to present simulator data and other updates ahead of the recommended budget publication.

Clarifying details available from the meeting: the county manager decision deadline for recommended-budget content is June 17; the recommended budget/last update will be released in mid‑July; the public hearing and revenue-neutral-rate hearing process will run between the last update and the Aug. 20 adoption date. The budget simulator results were scheduled to be presented to the commission the Tuesday following the meeting.