Sandoval County presents largely flat FY27 budget; Workday integration and public-safety asks draw scrutiny

Sandoval County commissioners heard a series of department-by-department presentations on a largely flat fiscal year 2027 operating budget, with several offices pressing the board for targeted increases and the county’s finance team warning of additional costs tied to the ongoing Workday implementation.

The most immediate line-item changes included a request from the treasurer to raise postage from $90,000 to $100,000 to cover higher first-class mail costs and an extra ~1,072 tax bills required by statute, and a banking/lockbox increase from $34,000 to $50,000 after the county outsourced lockbox services. “That’s 11.11%, for postage,” Treasurer Jennifer Taylor said in presenting the increases.

Clerks and elections officials asked for a $76,000 capital outlay to buy three “smart” secured ballot drop boxes and three additional temporary or permanent bureau positions to support the gubernatorial general election in 2027. The clerk described the devices as single-ballot drop systems that capture an image and communicate with a dashboard; annual maintenance was estimated in the presentation at roughly $4,000 per unit.

Law enforcement and detention officials emphasized public-safety pressures: the sheriff’s office reported a roughly 27% deputy turnover rate this past year and requested added overtime funding and five additional deputies to maintain minimum staffing across shifts. The county warden outlined roughly $1.8 million in detention capital needs — including kitchen equipment replacement, access-control upgrades, replacement of contraband detection systems and roof work — and provided a $330,000 estimate for the roof replacement on the older east side of the jail.

Other department highlights included requests from public works for fleet replacements (a proposed fleet capital program of about $1.8 million across multiple departments and targeted road equipment), landfill capital planning that could combine cells to save 15–20% on estimated construction costs, a $183,000 professional-services increase from the fire department largely for software consolidation and medical contracts, and a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar request to remount ambulances as a faster replacement option.

A recurring theme across presentations was reliance on external revenues and one-time funds: several departments said grants and dedicated funds (for example, the assessor’s 1% valuation fund and the clerk’s recording-and-filing fund) would cover portions of the proposed projects. The assessor requested three new positions (two junior appraisers and one mapper) and explained eligible uses of the assessor’s 1% fund for aerial imagery, staffing and occasional outside legal work.

Finance staff flagged uncertain, additional professional-service needs tied to the county’s Workday rollout. County officials said they did not initially anticipate some integration or reporting tasks; the county manager later told commissioners, “we were not aware of these as we went through it,” when asked whether these extra professional services had been part of the original planning. Finance has budgeted an initial estimate for Workday support and said it will refine that number as integration work continues.

The county manager said commissioners will take a conservative approach to new staffing and will prioritize public-safety items in recommendations to the board. The commission scheduled preliminary-budget review sessions in May to reconcile outstanding staffing, salary and capital requests before publishing the preliminary budget.