Umatilla County budget committee hears department priorities as state and federal uncertainty looms

The Umatilla County Budget Committee on May 2025 met to review department budget requests and capital priorities as county leaders warned of continued uncertainty in state and federal funding. Budget committee members elected George Murdock as chair and formally approved the meeting agenda. During a brief board action while the committee briefly adjourned, the Board of Commissioners approved a CAFA grant.

County administrative services staff described information-technology investments already under way and requested continued funding for backups, cyber resilience and server upgrades. Dan Lanai, Umatilla County director of administrative services, told the committee the county secured an Oregon Emergency Management grant of about $325,000 to implement an “air-gapped cyber vault” and that the installation is complete and now in testing; reimbursement paperwork is delayed by federal-level funding changes. Lanai also briefed the committee on two county data centers, geo-diverse backups and ongoing work on network segmentation and zero-trust approaches.

Elections officials reported the operational cost to run the most recent general election was roughly $85,800 after offsetting filing fees. Steve Cragan, the county’s elections supervisor, said year-to-year costs vary with temporary staff needs for major elections and that the office is budgeting for about the same scale of expense for the coming year. Cragan reviewed a standard “cost…