Erie County Council reviews $659,000 in budget adjustments for booking fees and Second Harvest food pass-through
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Summary
County staff asked the council to add $50,000 for a central booking fee and $608,920 to accept State Food Purchase Program funds as a pass-through to Second Harvest, with staff saying the county will only collect and remit the funds and will not exercise oversight.
Erie County Council on Jan. 8 reviewed two budget adjustments that together total $658,920: a $50,000 supplemental to restore central booking fee line items and a $608,920 appropriation to create county line items for State Food Purchase Program funds to be passed through to Second Harvest.
County staff told the council the $50,000 request corrects an inadvertent omission in the 2026 budget and simply restores the two line items previously created by a 2025 ordinance. On the larger item, staff said Second Harvest was informed by the state that the program "could not be directed or paid directly to them" and that the county must accept the funds and then pass them along. According to staff, "we have no administrative oversight... We're just the intermediary." (staff first spoke on this matter in SEG 066 and elaborated in SEG 086–096.)
Council members asked practical questions about the contract and whether a copy had been provided; staff confirmed the contract had been included with the ordinance packet though not necessarily printed in full for every meeting book. One councilor also asked whether the county had received the first check yet; staff said the first check was expected in January.
The council confined much of the discussion to process and documentation; there was no recorded vote or final action in the transcript. The ordinance numbers discussed in this session were introduced for consideration: the central booking fee supplemental was presented as Ordinance 2026 (item #2) and the Second Harvest pass-through as Ordinance 2026 (item #3). The county indicated it would not perform reporting or oversight of how Second Harvest spends the funds beyond receiving and remitting the check.
Next steps recorded in the meeting were limited to staff and council clarifications about the contract copy and the timing of the incoming check; no formal vote or final adjudication of the ordinances is recorded in the provided transcript.
