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County pilots 0‑based budgeting in HR, IT and Finance; requests include new positions and apprenticeship funding
Summary
St. Mary's County rolled out a 0‑based budgeting pilot for HR, IT and Finance. HR requested a full‑time employee relations investigator and $100,000 for an apprenticeship program; IT and Finance outlined technology and staffing needs including in‑car video for emergency vehicles and a prioritized payroll manager position for Finance.
County staff introduced a 0‑based budgeting pilot for three departments — human resources, information technology and finance — as part of the Feb. 24 budget work session. The pilot asks departments to build budgets from program goals and explicitly surface "must have" versus "need" items.
Tracy Anderson (Speaker 8) described HR’s pilot submission and said the department requested one full‑time employee relations investigator (new position) and $100,000 to support an apprenticeship program with the school system and Saint Mary's College. "We really dug deep, accounted for every penny that we could," Speaker 8 said of the process.
IT’s submission included four new applications, seven camera projects and Wi‑Fi expansions; emergency services reduced a prior 32‑vehicle in‑car video ask down to a 10‑vehicle core set (quoted cost $85,000 for 10 vehicles). Finance outlined three requested positions — a payroll manager (highest priority), a budget manager and a budget analyst — intended to close a workload and supervisory gap in the controller’s office.
Speakers discussed categorization of items as "must have" (mission‑critical), "need" (maintains current service level) or "want" (new initiatives) and asked for clearer indications in future packets when positions or line items are truly new versus carryover. Staff said the new approach makes program costs more transparent and easier to evaluate.
