Commissioners weigh cuts, millage outcome could force elimination of road patrol, county finance director warns

Finance director Melissa and county administrators presented early personnel projections for fiscal 2025–26 and told commissioners the board must decide whether to prepare a contingency plan if a proposed public-safety millage fails.

Melissa said the preliminary personnel and fringe-cost update does not include any across-the-board cost-of-living increase and covers detailed calculations for salary steps, health insurance and retirement. She said the county’s total personnel and fringe forecast rose in part because of routine step increases and updated benefit costs, and that retirement actuarial changes also affected projections.

"If we can fulfill essential services — safety, courts, your roads, your infrastructure — everything else is on the table to consider a cut or revision," the administrator told the board. Commissioners asked staff to produce a scenario that would show the impact of the millage failing, including what would happen if county-funded road patrol and the prosecuting attorney’s office were removed from…