Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget Review topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commissioners review fourth-quarter budget adjustments; DA appeals funding for conviction-integrity unit and sheriff seeks UTV asset number
Summary
During a fourth-quarter review of 2025 finances and 2026 requests, Arapahoe County staff outlined roughly $13M in GASB lease adjustments and multiple supplementals. The EBC recommended most items but withheld support for two DA FTE for a conviction-integrity unit; DA Patton urged reconsideration. The board agreed to include a sheriff request for a $31,000 UTV fixed-asset number in forthcoming public-hearing resolutions.
Arapahoe County finance staff presented the fourth-quarter 2025 budget review and a slate of supplemental appropriations on Thursday, detailing a set of required accounting adjustments, department overages and proposed 2026 requests.
Finance said accounting entries required by GASB 87/96 for new leases (including the Tyler taxation system and human-capital-management software) will require recognition and appropriation of roughly $13 million for 2025 supplemental reporting.
Staff reviewed multiple 2025 supplemental requests (clerk and recorder overages, DA payroll and vehicle transfers, facilities and fleet overages and several grant and revenue-recognition adjustments) and 2026 requests that included DA staffing and vehicle purchases, IT subscription increases, sheriff communication upgrades, election-equipment purchases and open-space vehicle replacements.
District Attorney A Patton phoned in to press the board to reconsider an EBC recommendation not to fund two full-time equivalents for a conviction-integrity unit. "This was my next highest priority after the things, the must-dos, the things that are actually statutorily mandated," DA Patton said, asking the commissioners to vote on starting the unit sooner and offering a lower-cost option (one full-time attorney and a part-time paralegal, roughly $202,000) to get the program going.
The EBC (executive budget committee) recommended moving most supplementals forward but did not recommend the two FTE (about $238,000) for the conviction-integrity unit and also did not recommend assigning a fixed-asset number for a sheriff-requested UTV.
Sheriff's office representatives asked the board to allow the ALEA fund (law-enforcement unincorporated-area fund) to assign a fixed-asset number of approximately $31,000 so the department can purchase a utility terrain vehicle for crowded-event response and operations where patrol SUVs are impractical. "All we're asking is for this fixed asset number to be issued so that we can use money from the adopted budget," a sheriff's office representative said, explaining the vehicle's use at fairs and other large events.
After discussion of ALEA fund health and competing fleet priorities, commissioners signaled they were comfortable including the UTV fixed-asset number in the resolutions that will go to public hearing; staff will draft the resolutions for the upcoming public hearing, and any item may be pulled at that hearing.
Other notable figures and items mentioned during the review included a proposed $601,000 central-services appropriation for election equipment (25 tablets and 75 mobile ballot printers), approximately $2.6M Centennial IGA revenue for the sheriff, and a proposed $1.5M capital commitment for IT modernization with a request to allocate $90,000 to a specific service-management project.
Next steps: Staff will prepare public-hearing resolutions reflecting the EBC recommendations and the board's direction (including the UTV item), bring the items to the public hearing in mid-February, and continue working with departments on the DA request and other supplementals.
