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Countywide budget review highlights public safety spending, investment levels and federal funding risk
Summary
County staff presented the countywide functional review—focusing on public safety and justice—and answered questions about fund balances, investments and potential federal/state funding risks. Staff said most federal exposure is below 1% of county resources, and the county is holding reserves.
County staff presented a countywide review of the proposed 2025–26 budget on May 7, focusing first on public safety and justice, then addressing countywide reserves, investments and the exposure to possible federal and state funding reductions.
Nut graf: The presentation highlighted a $27.9 million public safety and justice functional budget, a proposed 3% COLA embedded in personnel cost assumptions, and a reserve posture that county staff described as sufficient to absorb small federal cuts; staff said federal funding at risk is less than 1% of county resources but urged ongoing vigilance given uncertainty in state and federal budgets.
Staff reported the public safety and justice functional area total at $27,930,480 and 125.4 full‑time equivalent positions. Personnel services were shown up about 5.4% driven by a projected 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment and higher health and retirement costs; staff also noted a 0.63 FTE increase tied to a state‑funded deflection program coordinator and a reallocation of juvenile services leadership to provide oversight for public health within Health & Human Services.
On investments and fund balance, staff said the county holds the bulk of short‑term liquid funds in the Oregon Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) with roughly 82% of investments there and about 18% in longer‑term fixed‑income investments. Staff gave a rough dollar figure: about $47 million in LGIP and $10 million in longer‑term holdings. Andy Sullivan (county staff) and Monica (county finance) explained investments are fixed‑income instruments, not equities, and that earnings recently averaged roughly 4.5–5%. Sullivan said, “it's a pooled investment … for the state,” and staff indicated they ladder longer‑term investments by fund to match expected cash needs.
Committee members asked several program‑level questions within public safety and justice. Highlights included: - Records and dispatch upgrade: Sheriff Reichel described the county's planned CAD/RMS replacement as a modern system that will “integrate several functions into one,” improve data entry and increase mobile data capability for fire and patrol units; staff said some increase in materials and services is driven by an RMS subscription and CAD dispatch upgrades. - Medical examiner costs: the sheriff explained that changes in local funeral home practices have increased the county's need for cold storage and transport contracts in cases where the medical examiner has jurisdiction, driving higher contractual and storage costs. - Community corrections bed leasing: staff explained that community corrections is a special fund that pays for jail beds when parolees violate conditions; those expenses appear as costs in community corrections and revenue to the corrections division within the general fund.
On potential federal or state cuts, county staff and the county manager advised prudence but stressed the county’s current exposure is small. County Manager Blunt said the county will monitor developments and expects most decisions about state/federal funding impacts will occur later in the year; he advised that midyear adjustments may be necessary once final figures are known. Staff reiterated they are not investing in equities and are conserving fund balance in the near term.
Ending: County staff invited committee members to send follow‑up, itemized questions in writing; staff said they will provide detailed responses and updated packet pages at the May 14 meeting for items not resolved on May 7.
