Public Safety & Justice committee advances 2026 budget with new central vacancy account; Williams votes no
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Summary
Finance staff presented the committee's 2026 budget package, including a new process to centralize budgeted vacancy salaries (~$2.0 million county-wide, $1.9M in this committee) and a list of requested FTE changes including one forensic pathologist for the coroner. Committee advanced the package; all voted in favor except Member Williams.
The Peoria County Public Safety & Justice Committee advanced its fiscal 2026 budget recommendations after a presentation by county finance staff outlining revenue and expense projections, vacancy-accounting changes and specific staffing requests.
Heather (county finance staff) told the committee the county's recommended general fund is $64,200,000 in revenues with about $1,200,000 in planned use of fund balance to match budgeted expenditures; all funds are recommended at $172,500,000 in revenues with approximately $18,000,000 in planned use of fund balance. For the Public Safety & Justice Committee specifically, recommended revenues were $27,129,739 and expenditures $61,963,301.
Heather described a new budgeting approach to centralize proposed but unfilled positions in a general-fund vacancy account. In total the central vacancy account is roughly $2,000,000 across the county, with about $1,900,000 associated with positions tied to the Public Safety & Justice Committee. The county will track specific positions and transfer prorated salary and benefit amounts into departmental budgets when positions are filled during fiscal 2026; any unspent vacancy funds would be available for the board to allocate at year-end.
Staffing and FTE notes in the presentation included a net 6.25 FTE increase across committee departments, with specific items described in the packet: one forensic pathologist for the coroner (reported to be fully offset by intergovernmental revenues from other counties), a reallocation reducing PCAPS by 0.45 FTE, two new FTEs requested for juvenile detention center access-point screening, a requested assistant public defender, and other reallocations. The sheriff's office showed a net zero FTE change after adding two positions and eliminating two open correctional-officer positions; correctional-officer vacancies remain budgeted.
Committee discussion focused on tracking and future use of vacancy funds and whether any year-end leftover funds should remain available to the committee for public-safety repairs. Member Phelan and others supported the vacancy-accounting approach for transparency; Member Williams said she opposed the budget package because of staff-count concerns. The committee advanced the budget package; the chair announced the motion passed with all members voting in favor except Member Williams, who was recorded as opposed.
Members asked for ongoing reporting on contract revenues and expenses linked to new positions (for example, the coroner's intergovernmental agreements) and for more detail on long-term contract- vs. full-time staffing savings. Finance staff and department representatives agreed to provide additional quarterly updates.
