Camden County board advances proposed budget, opts for cloud migration and delays some EMS purchases

Camden County commissioners agreed at a May 28 work session to advance a proposed fiscal-year budget that trims capital projects, delays some EMS equipment purchases and moves forward with a cloud-based replacement for aging public-safety servers.

Staff told commissioners the county faces a multi-million-dollar shortfall. "There is a shortfall of 3.262174," said Scott, the staff presenter, summarizing updated revenue and expenditure projections and saying capital requests had pushed the gap back up after earlier operating cuts. Commissioners discussed three options: further cuts, drawing on fund balance or raising the millage.

Why it matters: the board must advertise a proposed budget June 4, hold a public hearing June 11 and adopt the budget at a special meeting June 23. The work-session decisions shape what goes into the advertised proposal and what the public will see at the hearing.

Major decisions and rationale

On the county's public-safety IT platform, commissioners and IT staff discussed risks from the county's five-node servers reaching end-of-life and the consequences of a catastrophic hardware failure for dispatch, mapping and electronic records. "Here's a worst case scenario. We have a catastrophic failure on that five-node system, and we lose all five nodes. Public safety is pretty much dead in the water," said Dane, the IT presenter, warning that a failure would force paper-based call-taking, slow response times and risk liability.

Staff presented two replacement paths: a new five-node on-premises system (about $451,000) or a three-node system (about $272,000) coupled with migration of many services to Amazon Web Services. After questions about security, lead time and costs, commissioners indicated consensus to move forward with the three-node/cloud approach and begin migration planning "because everything's going to the cloud," one member said.

On EMS equipment, the board decided to postpone LifePak replacements for one year. EMS personnel told commissioners the devices could likely last another year, and several members favored deferring the roughly $750,000 purchase to reduce the immediate capital deficit.

Cuts and tradeoffs

Staff and commissioners identified roughly $2.4 million in capital requests with only about $563,000 currently available; a series of line-item cuts and reclassifications aimed to narrow the gap. Items removed or deferred included the proposed K9 training center, certain printers and drones, cameras for the senior center, generators and an EMS training building. Commissioners kept eight patrol vehicles and several high-priority items, and a member proposed using SPLOST 9 and other fund reclassifications to free capital dollars.

The Sheriff warned that reducing patrol vehicle funding would strain operations. "We drive for a living every day ... When things go down, what do they get into? They get into a spare vehicle," the Sheriff said, urging caution about cuts that could lower service levels.

Funding choices and numbers

Staff noted one mill in property tax revenue would raise about $2.4 million; a half-mill about $1.2 million and a quarter-mill about $600,000. Removing LifePaks brought the updated general fund shortfall to about $2,468,574; with zero capital the general-fund gap would be roughly $796,000. Staff said the county's current fund balance is roughly $14 million (about 25% of reserves), and using fund balance to balance the budget would reduce that cushion.

Other items

A commissioner suggested soliciting sponsorships and donations to help pay for a fire-safety simulator trailer; one commissioner (Jim) pledged $500 on the record. Staff said the county's grant writer and finance staff would examine whether and how the county could accept or solicit outside funds and bring formal recommendations back to the board.

What happens next

Staff will incorporate the agreed cuts and deferrals into a proposed budget to be advertised June 4. The county will hold a public hearing June 11 and consider final adoption at a special called meeting June 23. The decisions at the work session set the parameters for those public steps.

(Reporting note: quotes and attributions in this story are taken directly from the May 28 work session transcript.)