County outlines programs-and-services inventory to find savings, improve collections

County operations staff presented a programs-and-services inventory initiative to the Commissioners Court on Nov. 20 to identify efficiencies, revenue opportunities and program costs ahead of FY27 budget discussions.

Example: Financial Recovery Division (FRD). Melissa Carrillo and Derek Ware presented FRD as a case study: operating costs for FRD run about $1.8 million (including staffing), while recoveries in fiscal year reporting were shown at roughly $5.6 million. "We know that the program cost the staff salaries, the equipment, the operational cost. It cost us about $1,800,000 to run your FRD program," Carrillo said. She later corrected an earlier offhand figure after staff recalculation, clarifying the county has about $67 million in uncollected amounts rather than an earlier-stated $100 million.

Opportunities: The inventory will catalog programs, services, FTE counts, and costs to enable targeted cost-benefit analysis. Staff highlighted a potential near-term revenue opportunity: uncollected hotel ("hot") taxes estimated just over $1 million. Commissioners discussed kiosk locations, after-hours payment access, and whether kiosks should accept a broader set of payments to reduce in-person traffic.

Next steps: Budget and operations staff will work with departments to develop inventories, perform cost-benefit analyses and return recommendations to the court in the spring Retreat/workshops. The goal is to prioritize critical services and consider options such as reassigning vacancies or outsourcing where appropriate.

Ending: Commissioners emphasized the need to avoid collecting from indigent residents where law requires safeguards and asked staff to include indigency patterns in the analysis.