Fairfield County hears departmental budget requests including vehicle replacements and records modernization

Fairfield County Council on June 4 reviewed a slate of departmental budget presentations and capital requests as part of its FY27 preparation.

Cheryl Ashford, who identified herself as Victim Assistance with the sheriff’s office, said she is not seeking additional recurring operating funds but asked the council to approve replacement transportation after 18 years and about 140,000 miles on her current vehicle. Ashford said her packet includes cost estimates for a small SUV and referenced an estimated purchase/lease figure provided to council staff.

Donna Clowney, chief deputy coroner, told the council she is currently using a personal vehicle for on-call responses and requested a capital vehicle allocation; she referenced a departmental placeholder of $25,000 but said a suitable used vehicle could cost less if obtained via state surplus. Clowney also asked whether mileage reimbursement from a residence to a call could be allowable; finance staff said IRS rules govern mileage and that the county would research whether on-call mileage could be reimbursed under those rules.

Judge Calder reviewed the probate court’s operating request and reported the court’s operating budget request is roughly $15,004.90; he also summarized recent court fee receipts reported in the packet. Paul Swearingen of the magistrates court said his office’s budget is largely unchanged from last year, with mostly minor adjustments and a request related to paving the magistrates’ parking lot.

Miss Woodard of Veterans Affairs outlined monthly veteran-benefit inflows to the county and asked that the council consider budgeting for recurring event catering and associated costs so staff and volunteers are not expected to pay out of pocket. Woodard described a plan to budget for several annual events and said sponsorships will still be solicited; finance staff said they would look for available departmental overages to cover the current year’s shortfall and consider budgeting the item in FY27.

Clerk Belton and register-of-deeds staff summarized office modernization projects. They described installation of a new courtroom audio–video recording system, secured juror lockers, and a plotter/scanner acquired to begin digitizing older records. The register of deeds team said manual recording remains the current practice in Fairfield County, with eRecording vendors’ quotes for full systems described by staff as six‑figure projects; presenters said they are pursuing grants and vendor quotes rather than asking the county to absorb the full capital cost at once. A separate quote of about $34,000 was cited for a secure glass vault/door to preserve and protect archived volumes.

Council members asked for greater clarity on salary and position-control accounting after finance staff explained that improved HR/finance coordination created more accurate salary forecasting for FY27. Finance staff also noted revenue lines for clerk/register fees are currently aggregated and recommended debt set-off and collection process improvements to recover outstanding fines.

The council approved the meeting agenda at the start of the session (the clerk recorded the vote and noted that one member was absent for medical reasons) and staff scheduled a final budget work session for Thursday, June 12, at 3:00 p.m. The council did not make final appropriations during this session; presenters were generally directed to work with finance staff to clarify line items and seek grants for larger capital needs.

Quotes used in this report are taken verbatim from meeting remarks: "I'm not requesting any additional monies" (Cheryl Ashford); "I go on call at 06:00 in the morning until 6 at night" (Donna Clowney); and "we charge the system charges an additional, sometimes, $10 for them to do e filing" (Clerk/Register presentation).