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Bannock County staff: small budget surplus expected as travel, training and stormwater costs rise
Summary
County staff told commissioners the FY budget looks on track for a modest $3,000–$5,000 surplus after two large upcoming expenses; officials discussed higher travel and training costs, a request to make a code enforcement position full time, and continued reliance on contracted engineering services.
A Bannock County staff member told commissioners during a recent meeting that the county expects to finish the fiscal year with a small surplus after removing two large upcoming expenses.
"We'll be right on our budget where we'll be somewhat of a little bit of a surplus, but that's breathing room in the 3 to $5,000 range, cross my fingers," the staff member said, describing an analysis that excluded two "big ticket" items: a county computer program and federally required stormwater-management costs that the staff member said will produce bills arriving in August and about Sept. 1.
The staff member said travel and education expenses are higher than past years because of new hires and planned training next spring. "I have new staff. I have a lot of new people, and there's some things that are gonna have to occur next spring in training," the staff member said, adding the county has not previously sent planning staff to national, state or local trainings during the staff member's six-year tenure.
Commissioner Wick raised a separate staffing item, saying a request had been made to change the county's code enforcement position to full time. "One item not mentioned was the request for the code enforcement position to be full time," Commissioner Wick said. The transcript records the remark followed by the word "10," but the prior or current full-time-equivalent level was not clarified in the meeting record.
Commissioners also questioned whether the county's use of contracted engineers and surveyors is working instead of hiring a full-time surveyor or engineer. Another commissioner asked whether the contractor approach was "working pretty good for you." The staff member replied that the contracting arrangement "just works really, really well," and noted a second contractor is kept as a backup to avoid conflicts when the primary contractor may have a project to which they are a party.
The staff member said most engineering services the county needs are associated with the landfill and "are all taken care of under Dylan's budget." No formal vote or motion on staffing or hiring occurred during the discussion.
Other procedural items discussed included follow-up outreach to the mayor of McCammon about that town's area of impact and a plan to finalize an ACI response during the week. The meeting recessed briefly at the end of the segment.
No formal decisions were recorded on the code enforcement staffing request or on changing the engineering staffing model; staff indicated follow-up conversations and routine budget monitoring will continue. The two large, pending bills (computer program and stormwater management) were identified as the primary near-term budget risks to watch.
