Kootenai County commissioners set three-month reserve, assign funds for elections equipment and capital projects

Kootenai County commissioners on May 1 directed staff to set aside three months of emergency reserves and to assign portions of the county's FY2025 surplus to elections modernization and several capital projects, county staff said.

Brandy Falcon of the auditor's office told the Board of Commissioners that closing the FY2025 books shows a surplus available for assignment once the board decides how many months of reserves to retain. Falcon said a three-month reserve would leave about $8.3 million available to allocate to capital projects.

The discussion focused on a number of lines in the auditor's circulated spreadsheet. The board gave direction to: assign an additional $700,000 to the Elections 10-year plan (bringing assigned elections funds to $2.2 million in the spreadsheet), increase the jail HVAC contingency by $1,000,000, add $330,000 for Justice Building HVAC and controls, and set aside $1,468,000 for the coroner/autopsy lab design and construction account identified by staff. Commissioners also agreed to restore the five-year facilities plan line and certain IT capital balances: the five-year plan was discussed at $2,000,000 and IT capital at $1,500,000 (an…