Davis County reviews final 2025 budget opening list; adds $10,000 water heater replacement

Davis County officials met in a Dec. 16 work session to review the final openings for the county's 2025 budget, and county controller Scott Burke said the only late addition to the spreadsheets was a replacement of a failed commercial water heater.

The most immediate change is a roughly $10,000 commercial water heater that failed in the building's boiler room, facilities staff member Lane Meadows said. "We had a water heater go out a day and a half ago," Meadows said, adding that the unit leaked onto a concrete pad in the basement and caused no structural damage but left restrooms without hot water.

Why it matters: the work-session briefing covered both small emergency capital needs and larger budget shifts that could affect departmental allocations and employee pay. Burke said the list also reflects several larger adjustments: higher utilities and dental-insurance costs, roughly $1 million of payroll-related adjustments tied to lower-than-expected turnover, and a reclassification of one contract from net to gross reporting that produces a $20 million reporting change.

"There's only one real change that you haven't seen before on the previous spreadsheets," Burke said, referring to the water-heater replacement. He described the $20 million item as an accounting reclassification, not new government spending: the contract should be reported as gross revenue and gross expense rather than net.

On employee compensation, county staff clarified that employees should see a 4% change in their pay on the first January paycheck. That 4% is composed of a 2% reallocation of 401(k) contributions and a 2% true cost-of-living adjustment (COLA); employees may receive up to 2.5% additional merit increases on their individual evaluation dates, Burke said. "Every employee on January the first paycheck in January should see a 4 percent increase," he said.

Burke also addressed revenue-side items, saying the county's golf course is operating with net positive revenue and helps cover some general fund administrative allocations. "The golf course makes money. It covers its own costs," he said, arguing that losing certain enterprise operations would put pressure on the general fund.

Procedural next steps were set: Burke said staff would send the drafted email to agency officers this week, meet individually with department directors after the holidays and schedule a director/AO meeting in the first week of January. He reiterated a budget submission deadline around Jan. 17 and said staff will work with liaison commissioners to review departmental lines and transfers.

There were no formal votes or policy actions during the session; commissioners debated whether to lead an in-person walkthrough of the spreadsheets or rely on the emailed materials and scheduled follow-ups. The session closed with the commission and staff agreeing to the communications and meeting plan ahead of the January deadlines.