Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Accountability topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council members press county executive staff after portal funding omitted from prior budget
Summary
Council members criticized interdepartmental coordination and lack of notice after HHS continued portal spending without a prior-year budget line, and the assistant chief administrative officer acknowledged the item "fell through the bureaucratic cracks."
Several council members sharply questioned why the Community Connect portal's ongoing costs were not included in prior budget submissions and pressed county executives for clarity about who authorized continuing vendor payments.
Councilmember Friedson told the joint session: "It is unclear to me what we're paying for... a supplemental appropriation is supposed to be reserved for extreme circumstances." Friedson and others said a supplemental should not be used to bury what they characterized as a budget oversight.
Lisa Cardona, assistant chief administrative officer, acknowledged the error during the hearing and apologized: "This had fallen through the bureaucratic cracks, and not just once, but multiple times." Cardona said the 2nd Floor recognized the mistake and that the executive would work with council staff to provide a detailed accounting.
HHS and council staff described the sequence that led to the supplemental: prior-year purchase orders and a vendor claim kept services running while staff developed the supplemental in January; HHS asked the vendor to keep servicing the portal to avoid shutting it down. Several council members said they would not be comfortable sending more funds forward without exact contract copies, invoices and a full scope of work.
