Council adopts project-codes ordinance; departments and Workday rollout cited as implementation issues

The County Council adopted substitute bill 1 for bill 128 to establish a framework for project and program codes that will help track multi-department and capital projects across county systems.

Councilman Harter, sponsor of the substitute, said the ordinance creates a consistent framework for what constitutes a project or program and for attaching a project code so the county and council can run consolidated reports. Chris Howard (county staff) told the council the current Munis system can already accept a project code and that the new ordinance sets definitions and guardrails for projects above certain thresholds (the ordinance and council discussion referenced multi-department projects and projects exceeding a threshold such as $100,000). Howard and others noted that the county will transition to Workday, which staff said is targeted for '26 but is a moving target; the substitute is intended as groundwork that will be adapted for Workday when it is implemented.

Council discussion emphasized transparency and budgeting uses: the codes aim to make it easier to compute total project costs that today are spread across multiple budget lines and systems. Councilman Hancock and others said many departments already use project codes for grant-funded work; the ordinance applies a consistent standard for qualifying projects and requires reporting to the council for projects that meet the criteria.

Action: The council adopted the substitute ordinance and later voted for final passage by roll call (7 ayes). Councilmembers asked staff to confirm Workday implementation dates and to provide guidance on how the codes will be instantiated in Munis this fall if possible.

Next steps: Departments and the administrative offices will coordinate implementation and reporting, and staff will provide timing on Workday readiness.