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 additional $380,000 to return that line to its historical level). Falcon said remaining undesignated assigned fund balance would move to the facilities master plan line for projects not yet specified and that staff would bring a resolution in the coming weeks to formalize these assignments.

Elections staff and several commissioners described reasons for increasing the assigned elections balance. Falcon and the elections manager noted Idaho coding changes and new federal voluntary guidelines from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) that have been incorporated into Idaho law. Falcon said the county has examined voting systems in Ada, Canyon, Bonner and Bonneville counties and described two vendors in current use in Idaho as "Hart" and "ES and S" (ES&S). Falcon said Hart's system is expected to achieve the newer EAC voluntary voting system guideline (VVS) 2 certification and offers a feature described in state law this year permitting a "unique identifier" that the county and a northern Idaho legislator discussed as a means to help ensure ballots are not counted more than once. Falcon added that a print-on-demand capability and precinct counters were included in quotes; she said a full print-on-demand solution was quoted at roughly $2 million and precinct counters were included in the lower $2.2 million planning figure noted in the spreadsheet.

Commissioners discussed trade-offs. Commissioner Matari (identified on the record as one of the three commissioners in attendance) expressed support for investing in election technology to bolster voter confidence and speed results; Commissioner Eberline said she preferred cutting the requested amount where possible. Falcon emphasized that assigning funds to a line is not an immediate spending authorization — formal contracts and appropriation would return to the board for approval.

Other discussion items included maintaining a $1,000,000 contingency for the new Justice Building during the move-in period, continuing a $500,000 assigned fund for grant-match (with Parks and Waterways expected to use roughly $300,000 of the existing balance for a one-time project), and retaining a combined $1,000,000-plus contingency for midyear capital requests. Jeff (staff) summarized project status and flagged likely funding shortfalls on several facilities projects because of contractor scarcity and rising bid prices: he recommended adding funds for the jail HVAC (he estimated $1,000,000), increasing the Justice Building HVAC appropriation (he estimated $330,000 for installation and controls), and proceeding toward full design and construction budgeting for the coroner/autopsy lab (design phase quote ~$105,000; construction roughly $1,000,000 estimated). Falcon and Jeff said they will present detailed contracts and appropriation requests to the board before any money is spent.

Falcon also noted that a portion of the FY2025 surplus reflected elevated interest revenue in the prior year and that interest receipts have helped the county’s fund balances; commissioners discussed that interest returns may moderate going forward as some one-time ARPA balances are spent down. The board did not take a formal roll-call vote during the meeting; commissioners indicated consensus on the reserves level (three months) and on the assignments discussed and directed staff to draft a formal resolution to be presented at a future meeting.

The meeting concluded with Falcon saying staff will prepare the resolution reflecting the board’s direction and with public comment absent; the board adjourned at 10:16 a.m.