Riley County departments present a slate of new and expanded staffing requests for 2026 budget

Department directors presented a package of proposed new or expanded positions May 19 as the county begins building its 2026 budget. Commissioners heard requests from the historical museum, community corrections, IT/GIS, public health clinic, and public works.

Catherine Hensler, museum director, requested a $10,509 increase to the museum’s as-needed staff budget, raising the line from $21,450 to $31,200 to provide more trained assistants to process a collections backlog and to provide consistent front-desk coverage. Hensler said trained volunteers were not reliably available and that curatorial staff were currently pulled away from professional duties to cover front desk and tours when as-needed assistants were not present.

Megan Lewis, director of community corrections, asked commissioners to restore juvenile intake on-call hours from 420 back to 600 to reflect realistic callout and training needs. She said intake and assessment coverage spans evenings, weekends and holidays and that on-call hours and required in-person training are drawn from that on-call budget.

Corey Meyer, IT/GIS director, requested an additional network security analyst, arguing that the county’s expanding infrastructure, three separate campus environments, increased camera and reader deployments and evolving threats require dedicated, proactive security management. Meyer said current staff and tools are increasingly consumed by daily operations and compliance tasks, and that the county needs dedicated time for log review, security rule maintenance and cross-agency coordination.

Health department leaders requested a dedicated billing and coding position for the county clinic and maternal-child health program. County staff said existing coding and denials work had been absorbed informally when administrative roles shifted; they argued a full-time biller/coder would improve denial management, timely filing, split receipts and separation-of-duty controls, and could help recoup additional reimbursements from insurers.

Public works asked for a custodial position to support the new EMS administrative spaces and the forthcoming emergency management/EOC facility; staff said current arrangements would be stretched when those new buildings come online and the additional position would allow regular cleaning coverage rather than relying on operations staff.

Commissioners did not make final funding decisions during the May 19 meeting; staff said these requests will be folded into the overall budget model, which will show the maximum projected cost (including a prospective cost-of-living adjustment) so commissioners can compare total impacts before adopting the 2026 budget.

The presentations included several additional, technical reclassifications and position-description revisions (Appraiser’s Office, IT title changes) that staff said carry no net fiscal increase for 2026 because they formalize work already underway or reassign duties among existing budgeted positions.

The board asked department heads to provide any additional detail needed for budget deliberations in June.