Sedgwick County CFO: rising demand, staffing and major capital projects squeezing county budget

Lindsey Poe Rizzo, chief financial officer for Sedgwick County, said Tuesday that “we have enormous demand for service” while the county must also live within available financial resources.

That tension — meeting rising public expectations while constrained by revenue and state limits on county authority — is the principal short- and long-term challenge for county finances, Rizzo told Commissioner Jeff Lubalt in a recorded interview.

Rizzo, who was recognized at the county’s employee ceremony for 15 years of service and said she has been CFO “for almost 9 years,” described a finance office of about 45 staff that supports more than 40 county departments. “Because we are in finance, we have that unique ability to be able to talk to everybody,” she said, adding that relationships and situational awareness help prioritize limited resources.

The CFO said several large, multi-year capital projects are coming to a head and will require focused planning and funding decisions. She named a planned COMCARE crisis facility and staffing that center, the county’s regional forensic science center and other space needs as examples of “big, generational projects” that will drive budget conversations in the next few years. “I do think there’s a lot of conversation that’s going to need to be had about a COMCARE complex,” she said.

Rizzo also described her role as contract administrator for Intrust Bank Arena. She said the arena was built with a 1¢ sales tax and that, because private management handles day-to-day operations, her role is primarily the county’s financial liaison with the arena contractor: “It’s my job since it’s mostly a financial arrangement these days to kind of be the liaison between the county government and the folks who manage that arena on our behalf.”

Commissioner Jeff Lubalt, who conducted the interview, noted pressures similar to those he saw while on the Wichita City Council: inflation, higher salaries and staffing loss. He credited the commission’s recent focus on employee compensation with helping recruitment and retention.

Rizzo described her background — starting in the budget office in 2010, earlier work with the Legislature’s Division of Post Audit and a law degree — as informing her approach to budget and contract work. She also said the commission’s and county manager’s priorities guide which issues get immediate attention.

For contact, Rizzo asked listeners to use the Sedgwick County finance web page to find staff email addresses rather than relying on spoken email addresses.

Looking ahead, Rizzo said the interplay of service demand, staffing and the timing of large capital projects will shape budget discussions: “That’s a lot of what the county is going to have to be talking about in the next few years.”