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Finance director warns of tight budget; chair proposes reduced courthouse public hours to ease staff strain
Summary
Eaton County finance director reported FY 2023–24 revenues and expenditures and highlighted lingering budget pressures; Chair Matt Mott proposed changing administrative‑wing public hours to help understaffed departments manage workloads, a proposal the committee moved to the full board.
Finance Director Melissa presented preliminary FY 2023–24 projections and a first‑quarter FY 2024–25 update at the Feb. 14 Ways and Means meeting, telling commissioners the county's revenues exceeded estimates while expenditures were substantially under budget, primarily because of position savings and delayed projects.
"Our revenues were approximately $150,000 higher than we expected," Melissa said, while noting the county had budgeted to use fund balance in FY24–25; the controller's projection showed an unrestricted ending fund balance lower than it would be without planned use of reserves. Melissa also reported the county's health insurance fund finished calendar year 2024 with an estimated negative balance of about $116,000, subject to a pending quarterly settlement that she said should restore the fund to break‑even.
Chair Matt Mott described operational strain across county departments and asked the committee to consider immediate steps to reduce staff stress and preserve services. Mott proposed closing the controller's office to the public on two days to allow staff concentrated time to prepare the budget, and asked the committee to recommend a change to the administrative wing's public hours: open 08:30–16:30 Monday–Thursday and closed to the public on Fridays, with a uniform lunch closure from noon–1 p.m. He said staff would continue to work full 40‑hour weeks but would use the reduced public window to catch up on administrative work.
"This is where we are — we have to dump everything that's nonessential to avoid crashing," Mott said, urging commissioners to view the measure as a temporary operational change to respond to staffing shortages and workload backlog.
Commissioners and department heads voiced support for giving departments time to reorganize and suggested courts would need to coordinate with the state court administrative office before any public‑hours change affecting judicial operations. Court representatives said court schedules are governed by judicial orders and that any changes affecting the public's ability to access court services require coordination.
Human Resources Director Ben outlined other near‑term personnel matters: the committee authorized three public defender positions, agreed to pause reclassification requests for this budget cycle except when tied to cost savings, and discussed nonunion sick‑leave policy changes to comply with a new state Earned Sick Time law set to take effect Feb. 21. Ben said the county expects to present a finalized nonunion sick‑leave policy for board approval at the next meeting and had scheduled director briefings to explain the operational impact.
The committee voted to move the courthouse public‑hours proposal to the full board for final consideration and adopted an expanded budget schedule to allow additional review meetings between Ways and Means and the full board. Chair Mott cautioned that even if the county finishes FY23–24 better than anticipated, structural deficits and inflationary pressures mean difficult decisions and further service tradeoffs will be required if additional revenue is not secured.
