Camden County commissioners narrow capital list, approve cloud plan for public-safety servers and defer EMS purchases

Camden County commissioners on May 28 moved to pare back capital spending and to pursue a cloud-based upgrade of the county's public-safety servers as staff warned the current on-premises system is at end of life.

The work session focused on a roughly $2.4 million list of capital requests against about $563,000 in available capital funds, leaving a capital shortfall of about $1.67 million after the board agreed to defer several items, including new EMS LifePak units for one year. Commissioners directed staff to advertise the proposed budget on June 4, hold a public hearing June 11 and consider final adoption at a special-called meeting on June 23.

"There is a shortfall of 3.262174," a staff presenter said when outlining updated revenues and expenditures, noting capital requests had pushed the deficit back up despite earlier operating cuts. The figure framed the session's choices: make further cuts, draw on fund balance, or raise millage.

On the largest technical investment under consideration, commissioners were presented with two main options: replace the county's five-node, on-premises public-safety system (quoted near $451,000) or install a smaller three-node system (quoted in the $200,000'$272,000 range) and migrate software to a cloud host. Staff cautioned the existing five-node servers are at end of life and said a catastrophic failure could severely disrupt dispatch and mapping functions.

Dane, a staff IT presenter, described the operational risk and timeline: moving core public-safety servers to Amazon Web Services would require about 9'12 months for migration, and the county would run a mixed on-premises/cloud environment during the transition. After discussion, commissioners signaled consensus to pursue the three-node installation and begin migration to the cloud.

Commissioners also agreed to defer the LifePak purchase for one year after EMS staff indicated their current units could likely remain serviceable for an additional year. "I think we need to kick it down the road one more year," a commissioner said after EMS staff said the units could last another season.

The board kept the proposed fire-safety simulator trailer on the capital list but asked staff to explore grants and whether the county may accept donated funds or corporate sponsorships to help pay for it. One attendee offered a $500 pledge as an example of community support. Commissioners asked staff to determine what formal authorization would be required to solicit or accept outside funds and whether the county's grant writer could pursue external funding.

On public safety vehicles, the sheriff warned that cutting funded patrol vehicle purchases from the proposed eight toward a lower number would strain operations given high-mileage spares and recent wrecks. Commissioners discussed pursuing Georgia Office of Highway Safety grants to replace some vehicles but noted grant timing and staffing make those funds uncertain for immediate needs.

Staff presented revised shortfall numbers across funds: after deferring LifePaks and making the cuts discussed, the capital shortfall fell to about $1.67 million; the general fund shortfall remained materially larger (staff cited a general-fund gap of about $2.47 million in one scenario). County staff reminded commissioners that tapping fund balance would reduce reserves and could affect bonding capacity.

The board directed staff to prepare the proposed budget for publication next week and to return a finalized advertisement-ready packet for the June 4 deadline. The session concluded by consensus to proceed with the staff-recommended list with the LifePaks deferred and with continued efforts to secure outside funding for the fire-safety trailer.

The county did not take a formal recorded vote on the budget at the session; the board's direction was recorded as consensus and staff will publish the proposal for public comment ahead of the June 11 hearing.