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Orange County presents program budgeting pilot, ties spending to services
Summary
Interim county administrator Lehi DePaul presented a new program-budgeting framework piloted in FY25 and integrated into FY26 departmental budgets to show what the county buys and why, while warning the approach is an enhancement—not a full cost-accounting system.
Lehi DePaul, interim county administrator, told the Orange County Board of Supervisors on July 22 that the county piloted a program-budgeting project in FY25 and has incorporated it into FY26 departmental budgets to make spending and outcomes easier to compare.
"First of all, is a strategy for building trust, to show us not just how much is spent, but what is spent on and the value that spending provides," DePaul said, explaining that the effort is intended to connect the board's priorities to department performance measures.
The presentation showed the county is embedding program codes into its chart of accounts so reports can be run by fund, department, program and project. DePaul said a phased approach used beta testers—the IT department and Fire & EMS—to create practical examples other departments could follow. He described project codes prefixed with a "P" plus four digits to identify program-supporting projects and offered an example showing a cybersecurity program with projects such as awareness training and disaster recovery. One example in the presentation listed a program total of about $56,000; DePaul also noted an IT departmental rollup showing about $1.5 million.
DePaul emphasized limits: the new system is an enhancement to, not a replacement for, traditional line-item budgeting. "It is not a true cost accounting for each service delivery effort," he said, noting personnel allocations are annual estimates prepared with department heads and built into payroll as percentage allocations rather than tracked hour-by-hour. He urged the board to view the tool as a way to start conversations about aligning resources to priorities rather than as a definitive cost calculator.
Board members praised the work as a useful next step. One member said program-level reporting helps identify when a program claims an outsized share of a department budget and can prompt closer review.
DePaul closed by inviting feedback as the county finalizes an electronic digital budget book that will present missions, programs, projects and performance measures on departmental pages and said staff will refine the system over time.
