Last month, the Brown County Council approved spending up to $10,000 on a capital improvement plan and a county budget seminar for all department heads before 2023 budget work begins this summer.
Council President Gary Huett said on May 16 that the council wants departments to start planning budgets years in advance.
“We would like to get them on the same page,” he said.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said county leaders had tried to get departments to plan ahead, but with changes in elected officials every four years it was difficult to do, which is why they began paying the county’s financial adviser Baker Tilly to do a five year financial forecast. Council member Dave Critser said department forecasts can change if someone new is elected to lead an office and they do not follow the budget.
“We need to move forward on a systemic basis apart from change in leadership. Yes there will be changes, but how do we facilitate adjustments? But also how do we facilitate continuing to move forward? It’s bigger than the leaders,” Huett said.
Auditor Julie Reeves also pays for consulting from budget adviser Jacque Clements with the Association of Indiana Counties. They are in communication with both advisers weekly, Biddle said.
“You have no departmental level view of forecast. That is what’s wrong,” Council Vice President Dave Redding said.
Currently department heads turn budgets into Reeves. Reeves said she will help departments with new leaders or who have had changeover finalize their budget if needed.
Biddle has helped manage the county’s capital improvements. She was not re-elected for a third term, so council members want a system in place that can help them get a clearer picture of where they are financially along with tracking projects and department budgets despite changes in leadership following an election.
“The question is how do we get better information three to five years down the road? How do we get everyone on the same page? How do we get more information so we can be more in the loop and make better, more knowledgeable decisions?” Huett said.
“A system that is bigger than a personality when a person (in a department) changes.”
Critser said that running government as a business and having department heads knowing how much money the county has sometimes does not work.
“If I did (let them know how much we had) it would be ‘Raise time, raise time. I need this and that.’ I was probably hit with that for 15 years straight,” he said.
Council member Scott Rudd said understanding what is anticipated to come into the county budget each year allows the budget to be designed based on what there is to spend instead of what department heads want to spend.
“Most department heads have a small budget. Some of them have vehicle needs, capital assets. It’s not like we don’t know a few years from now what will need to be replaced,” Rudd said, adding he would want department heads to be involved in making cuts to their budget.
Critser said most department heads do that during budget reviews in the summer.
“I always felt like our department heads have done a real good job keeping everything in control,” he said.
Huett suggested having Baker Tilly host a “budgeting 101 seminar” where department heads can ask questions and get clarification on where the money in their budget comes from to get everyone on the same page.
In that seminar, Baker Tilly would explain the concept of local government financing including roles and responsibilities of different offices.
“If we find there are areas where we cannot match revenues with disbursements, what options do we have? We’re good at coming up with potential options to fund those gaps,” said Paige Sansone with Baker Tilly.
She estimated a budget seminar would cost between $1,500 and $2,000.
Huett said the county council could pay for a budget seminar and then see where to go from there.
The goal would be able to use the information from the seminar in the budget review sessions, Rudd added.
Biddle said that some of the options to bridge gaps in county budgets are already being utilized, such as taking out a loan every couple of years for large capital improvement expenses. She added that the county already pays Baker Tilly nearly $40,000 for the five year financial plan along with help on the capital loan and reestablishing the cumulative capital development fund.
“What we’re proposing really is to add a level above that as far as the education piece, the facilitating department head meetings, the council meetings and commissioner meetings,” Sansone said.
“We are looking at long-term impacts on certain budgets, like giving raises. You need to know before giving a raise if you can fund that in the long term, so a sustainable budget is what we focus on. … We can still add value without overlapping.”
Rudd proposed spending up to $10,000 on the budget seminar and other technical advice that does not overlap Clements’ services. During the budget work process, Clements helps the county council keep track of any cuts made to department budget requests. She then updates projections for the next year’s budget to show where any further cuts need to be made to ensure the budget is approved by the Department of Local Government Finance.
Baker Tilly could also create a capital improvement plan for the county. The cost for that ranges from $5,000 to $10,000 based on if the firm would have to create a plan from scratch or not.
Biddle said she currently manages the county’s capital improvements based on recommendations from the county’s maintenance team because the commissioners are responsible for buildings, grounds, upkeep and maintenance. She said she would be happy to help facilitate a capital improvement plan if it can be done before her term ends in December.
”I can give you a report on each building, what primary needs are in each building with not a lot of effort. We have a revolving plan with (sheriff’s department) vehicles. We replace three vehicles every year,” she said.
Rudd said he wanted a capital improvement plan to be finished before council started working on the 2023 budget, but Sansone said it would take a couple of months to finish a plan. Budget review hearings are set for August.
“If we go into our budgeting cycle with little visibility, we know there are potential issues there, so we pull back conservatively on our budgets. It will cause more tightening due to uncertainty, because of the unknown,” Rudd said.
“The most important thing of what Paige does is not the plan itself, it’s figuring out how to fund those things. We don’t know how to pull these funds strategically and put the jigsaw puzzle together.”
A motion for the seminar and to receive other advice from Baker Tilly — subject to finding $10,000 to pay for it all — was approved 3-2 with Redding abstaining and Critser and council member Art Knight voting no.
