The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutPacket Special Council Jun 11 2024Whatcom County Council (Special) COUNTY COURTHOUSE 311 Grand Avenue, Ste #105 Bellingham, WA 98225-4038 (360) 778-5010 Meeting Agenda Tuesday, June 11, 2024 10 AM Council Office Conference Room - Hybrid Meeting HYBRID MEETING (PARTICIPATE IN -PERSON, SEE REMOTE JOIN INSTRUCTIONS AT www.whatcomcounty.us/joinvirtualcouncil, OR CALL 360.778.5010) COUNCILMEMBERS Barry Buchanan Tyler Byrd Todd Donovan Ben Elenbaas Kaylee Galloway Jon Scanlon Mark Stremler CLERK OF THE COUNCIL Dana Brown -Davis, C.M.C. Council (Special) Meeting Agenda June 11, 2024 Call To Order Roll Call Announcements Individuals who require special assistance to participate in the Council's meetings are asked to contact the Council Office at 360.778.5010 at least 96 hours in advance. This committee meeting is also noticed as a meeting of the Whatcom County Council, with the agenda limited to committee business. Committee Discussion 1. AB2024-379 Discussion of Whatcom County Budget Process 2. AB2024-341 Discussion and approval of Council Office budget items to include as Additional Services Requests (ASRs) with the department's proposed 2025-2026 biennial budget Items Added by Revision Other Business Adiournment Whatcom County Pure 2 Printed on 412312025 • Whatcom County COUNTY COURTHOUSE 311 Grand Avenue, Ste #105 Bellingham, WA 98225-4038 (360)778-5010 • Agenda Bill Master Report File Number: AB2024-379 File ID: AB2024-379 Version: 1 Status: Discussed File Created: 05/28/2024 Entered by: MMiterko@co.whatcom.wa.us Department: Finance Division File Type: Discussion Assigned to: Council Committee of the Whole Final Action: 10/08/2024 Agenda Date: 10/08/2024 Enactment #: Primary Contact Email: bbennett@co.whatcom.wa.us TITLE FOR AGENDA ITEM: Discussion of Whatcom County Budget Process SUMMARY STATEMENT OR LEGAL NOTICE LANGUAGE: Discussion of Whatcom County process for assembling the Biennial Budget and charter and code requirements. HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE FILE Date: Acting Body: Action: Sent To: 06/04/2024 Council Committee of the Whole PRESENTED AND DISCUSSED 06/11/2024 Council (Special) DISCUSSED 09/10/2024 Council Special Committee of the Whole DISCUSSED 09/24/2024 Council Committee of the Whole DISCUSSED 10/08/2024 Council Committee of the Whole DISCUSSED Attachments: Council Budget Presentation for 6.4.2024, Handouts 6.11.2024, 2025-2026 Budget Message, Staff Memo 9.10.2024, Presentation for 9.10.2024, Presentation for 9.24.2024, Memo 10.8.2024 Whatcom County Page 1 Printed on 4/23/2025 0 ryc DISCUSSION of the r �_J Q ",• •1 } .i 'fit � � ' i f WHATCOM COUNTY BUDGET Whatcom County process for assembling the Biennial Budget and charter and code requirements PRESENTED BY AS -FINANCE Brad Bennett, Finance Manager Andrew Tan, Assoc. Finance Manager "At the most basic level it is a legal document that gives local government officials the authority to incur obligations and pay expenses. It allocates resources among departments, reflecting the legislative body's priorities and policies, and controls how much each department may spend..." MRSC A budget serves as a communication device, a policy document, a financial plan and an operations guide. Environmental Nealth Administration Fada,e PDS-Current Planning PUS -Environmental Permitting Guardian Ad Litem/Dependency Geographical Information Systems Administrative Services Sheriff -Records Election Reserve juv-Residential Care PaeZs - Ad,�`K`st�at`°K Human Services Administration Courthouse Facilitators Emergency Dispatch Nearing Examiner SC=Ad M I n I S t r 11110 n ° District Court Probation PDs C 7g Par e, Peae�riaj see, ur ,nag, %Kiar i'ewaiees (i°a7ti� Eecatir�e Sheriff -Civil ' Animal Control Sheriff Boating Program Law Library Leave Payout Gawwwrit� /{eaetk fldMiaietratiax S6i�Wot E�rme«eKt � el � Sheriff -Courthouse Severity P a r iqS Clinic Services District Court %�Di'-"", E�ofeeneat 0 Sheriff- Investigations Public Defender nn p eLf Drinking Water I"P — �Q�NCi7istf°Qti07 LEOFF I Medical �ie (ftf0� Plantation Rifle Range Emergency Management Clerks Office Treasurer Health - Administration Technology Capital - Drug Task Force Office of Assigned Counsel County Councilt r Communicable Disease _ Auditor Administration $ 0 WSU Extension i/ceri�� /ve�/c6orkood Prosecuti*ng A S'keri�jf %%aeiaS ffntkorit� i'a�oPort Northwest Regional Council ��rististwatiost Miscellaneous Road,Flood,Debt Tuberculosis Juv - Administration Probation Sheriff -Traffic Sheriff -Point Roberts /L% ca�Fanrine�//L%��ae /{eaetk,. G/rie,drer & faMi�es Sheriff -Fire Marshall Communicable Disease & Epidemiology Administration Fund balance is the accumulation of revenues minus expenditures from the fund inception. Budgeted expenditures do not exceed estimated revenues plus fund balance. The appropriation ordinances shall not exceed the estimated revenues for to the next budget cycle for each fund including surpluses and reserves. (Whatcom County Charter Section 6.60) The process of preparing, drafting and discussing the budget and accounting for its implementation. The county is on a biennial budget cycle. We manage our biennial budget cycle as two one-year budgets. The Whatcom County Charter Section 6.05 provides that funds can be on a biennial cycle, annual budget or a mixture of annual and biennial by fund. A capital budget is usually a large project that benefits future years and budget cycles, examples are a building or computer system. Capital project budgets are adopted by capital budget appropriation ordinances. They span calendar years and biennial budget cycles. Capital project budgets lapse when the project is complete, when the project is abandoned or an encumbrance has not been made in three years. (Whatcom County Charter 6.8) Birch Bay Drive & Pedestrian Facility Fund 3393 Revenues _ $16,730,913 $15,291,786 Expenditures $14,333,876 $15,291,786 $0 $3,000,000 $6,000,000 $9,000,000 $12,000,000 $15,000,000 $18,000,000 Actual Budget 3A $1.4 million federal grant was received in support of the Birch Bay Drive & Pedestrian Facility with- out a corresponding revenue budget being adopted for this transaction. Project Update: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenterNiew/68506 Proiect Webpaae: https://www.whatcomcountv.us/522/Birch-Bav-Drive-Pedestrian-Facilitv-Proi Fund 339 data from Whatcom County Quarterly Report Q2 2022 Amounts in the current budget that remain unspent at year end and cannot be carried over to the next year. Operating budgets expire at year end which is December 31 (Whatcom County Charter 6.8). Capital project budgets lapse when the project is complete, when the project is abandoned or an encumbrance has not been made in three years. Budget authority added to the current budget for contracts and legal commitments that were made in the previous year/budget. ...any outstanding obligations for ongoing contracts and/or capital outlay projects of the county that have been encumbered and were planned to be completed before the end of the fiscal year, may be completed and warrants may be drawn on continuing appropriations in the following fiscal year if approved by the county executive. (Whatcom County Code 3.02.050) Restricted funds are funds to account for revenues that are legally require to be expended for specific purposes. Examples are Road Funds, Homeless Housing Funds, REET I and REET II Funds. Grant and restricted revenue shall be used first to pay for all eligible expenditures before any unrestricted General Fund general revenue is used as local funding for eligible expenditures. (Budget Ordinance) The county budget is adopted at the department level for the General Fund and at the fund level for other funds. • Money allocated to salaries and wages, personnel benefits and capital outlay can be transferred only with prior approval of the county executive (Budget Ordinance). • Expenditure authority granted in the budget is based on revenue projections contained in the budget. If it is evident that a department's revenues will fall short of the department's budgeted revenues in any calendar year, the department head will submit a plan to the County Executive to reduce departmental expenditures sufficient to offset the revenue shortfall within the same calendar year (Budget Ordinance). •l V ff 4(*1 1101 WA :{ 11 B14M = KOl N D Whatcom County Budget for the biennium 2023-2024: GENERAL FUND 2023 Appropriation 2024 Appropriation Assessor 4,026,482 4,129,800 Auditor 1,491,588 1,510,777 Council 1,968,027 2,011,737 Executive Executive 1,052,506 1,071,821 Non -Departmental 21,871,126 24,547,894 Planning & Development 6,709,817 6,834,349 Treasurer 1,726,988 1,759,325 Sheriff 21,571,510 21,867,314 District Court District Court 3,126,608 3,173,979 District Court Probation 2,351,782 2,389,828 Prosecuting Attorney 7,461,615 7,673,206 Public Defender 6,339,771 6,575,900 Superior Court Superior Court Administration 4,134,491 4,178,633 County Clerk 2,958,705 3,026,399 Juvenile Administration 5,537,680 5,657,912 Extension 697,880 702,954 Parks and Recreation 5,307,454 5,150,284 Public Health 18,866,974 18,867,678 TOTAL GENERAL FUND 117,201,004 121,129,790 Continued on next page I COUNTY BUDGET ORDINAN FUND No. OTHER FUNDS 2023 Appropriation 2024 Appropriation 108 County Road 31,733,537 31,815,169 109 Election Reserves 1,825,443 1,781,667 114 Veterans Relief 528,243 527,601 118 Whatcom County Jail 19,986,894 20,383,363 121 Low -Income Housing Projects 260,000 260,000 122 Homeless Housing 7,257,347 5,229,071 123 Stormwater 1,780,194 1,543,637 124 Behavioral Health Programs 10,266,071 10,397,988 126 Parks Special Revenue 205,000 105,000 127 Mental Health & Developmental Disability 735,815 764,556 128 Swift Creek Sediment Management 225,300 335,300 129 Affordable & Supportive Housing 650,000 650,000 130 Countywide Emergency Medical Srvcs 23,091,531 23,965,184 132 Lake Whatcom Stormwater Utility 941,915 793,761 133 Affordable Hsg, Beh Hlth Fac, Rltd Srvc 1,289,585 1,304,260 135 WC Trial Court Improvement 105,870 45,870 138 American Rescue Plan Act 17,729,114 3,901,828 139 Ferry Fare Capital Surcharge 41,266 41,266 140 Solid Waste 2,288,314 2,275,169 141 WC Convention Center 1,456,925 891,150 142 Victim Witness 251,000 263,644 154 Road Improve #1 38,292 39,292 155 Road Improve #2 2,488 2,588 159 Road Improve #7 3,508 3,608 165 WC Drug Fund 562,000 187,000 166 Auditor's O&M 252,426 167,426 167 Emergency Management 1,732,488 1,672,430 175 Conservation Futures 531,984 649,165 245 2010 Ltd Tax GO & Refund Bond 233,025 230,025 324 REET II 2,644,142 129,658 326 REET I 4,613,073 2,279,940 332 Public Utilities Improvement 2,888,937 1,932,307 444 Ferry System 3,911,803 3,946,609 501 ER&R 20,369,132 17,002,112 507 Administrative Services 22,953,060 21,623,142 Total Other Funds 183,385,722 157,140,786 The budget ordinance controls the authorized positions the administration is authorized to fill. Part time positions can be increased temporarily subject to available budget. Council must authorize an increase the number of authorized positions by ordinance. Temporary employees may be hire subject to available department budget authority. (Budget Ordinance) PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT Mid -Biennium 2022 Totals Additional 2022 Changes Amended 2022 2023 Changes 2023 Totals 2024 Changes 2024 Totals Director I 1.00 I I 1.00 I I 1.00 I I 1.00 Assistant Director I 1.001 I 1.00 I I 1.001 I 1.00 Administrative Manager I 0.001 I 0.001 1.001 1.001 I 1.00 Operations Supervisor 1.001 I 1.00 I (1.00)1 0.001 I 0.00 Clerk/Receptionist 1.001 I 1.00 I (1.00)1 0.001 I 0.00 Division Manager I 2.001 I 2.001 I 2.001 I 2.00 GIS Specialist I 1.001 I 1.00 I I 1.001 I 1.00 Planner I 25.001 I 25.001 2.001 27.001 1.001 28.00 Coordinator I 2.001 I 2.00 I 1.001 3.001 I 3.00 Clerk I 1.001 I 1.001 I 1.001 I 1.00 Public Service Inspector I 4.001 I 4.001 I 4.001 I 4.00 Fire Inspector I 3.001 I 3.00 I I 3.001 I 3.00 Plans Examiner I 3.001 I 3.001 I 3.001 I 3.00 Permit Center Specialist I 1.001 I 1.00 I I 1.001 I 1.00 Planning Technician 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 47.00 0.00 47.00 2.00 49.00 1.00 50.00 TOTAL PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT Postion Control data from 2023-2024 Biennial Budget • `»0(o] V 1 V 1= 01D]Z11111110={1111111111D Wednesday, June 26, 2024 ..... Release Budget Instructions Friday, August 02, 2024 ............ Departmental Budgets Due (except PW, Health, Sheriff) Friday, August 09, 2024 ............ Public Works, Health, and Sheriff/Jail Budgets Due August 12 - October 17............... Meet with departments and finalize Executive Recommended Budget Friday, October 18, 2024........... Executive Recommended Budget to Council October 23 - November 18...... Council Budget Review and Hearings Tuesday, November 19, 2024 .. Co u n c i I Adoption of the 2025-2026 Budget :451 D • • •l' • The base budget equals your 2024 budget adopted by council less one-time ASRs (Additional Service Requests) and adjustments for changes in personnel costs. Personnel costs include step adjustments for the next biennium. The base budget DOES NOT include: 2023-2024 budget supplementals or mid -biennium adjustments other than ongoing positions added during the period. Items added by supplemental marked as ongoing will have to be re -requested byASR. :451D14"1ME10&:1V1491"It*]0L:UMe1' • '»0(o] V 1 V 1= 01D]zDA:111D If there will be a decrease in grant funding, you must decrease the expenditures in your base budget accordingly. In the event your department discontinues or has decreased funding in fee for service activities, you must reduce your base budget for both the service revenue and any cost of providing the service. :491 D County revenue policy states that departments should "Structure fees and negotiate grants to recover the total cost, including administrative overhead, of the associated service." See "Setting Fees for County Services" policy. :451 D • • Only include in your budget submission grants for which you have signed contracts. The exceptions to this rule are: • Consolidated Health, • Consolidated Juvenile, and • Support Enforcement grants. To obtain an additional exception to this rule, contact AS -Finance. :451 D • • Additional Service requests are required to request budget increases above base budget. ASRs are indented to be decision units and should address all the revenues and expenses for a specific request. Unrelated requests should be separate ASRs. • '»0(o] V 1 V 1= 01D1=DR:111D Only submit AS Rs for services and activities that are thoroughly planned and will be ready for implementation: costs are known. All county departments that will be impacted by the ASR know their respective role in the ASR, and they support the ASR. The ASR includes all related costs, including temporary help, overtime and labor costs to be reimbursed to other departments. For requests that do not meet these criteria (as in those not yet thoroughly planned or not yet ready for implementation), you will need to use the supplemental budget process. :491 D Negative ASRs In past budget cycles we have requested departments prepare negative ASRs to identify possible means of reducing the budget in order to bring all funds budgets into balance. 2023-2024 Budget Preparation - Regular Additional Service Request Administrative Services Facilities Management asiz # 2023- ss0a Fund 359 Cost Cente 359100 Originator. Rob Ney Expenditure Type: One -Time Add'I FTE Add'I Space D Priority 10 Name of Request: Courthouse Exterior Project Costs: 1 Object Object Description 1 2023 Requested) 2023 Approved I 2024 Requested I 2024 Approved 6630 Professional Services $4,077,100 $4,077,100 $3,238,000 $3,238,000 8301.332 Operating Transfer In $0 ($1,508,527) $0 ($1,198,060) 8301.326 Operating Transfer In $0 ($2,568,573) $0 ($2,039,940) Totals $4,077,100 $0 $3,238,000 $0 1. Description of Request: a) Describe the proposed activity or service, and indicate whether it is a higher or lower priority than existing services in your department budget. Continuation of HKP Courthouse Exterior Project as Defined in HKP Report Dated November 2015. Continued efforts include replacing remaining roofs, and roof top mechanical equipment. The scope of work also includes replacing glazing on the 1993 (East) addition, where glazing has failed. Efforts are shown for cost/year. Each year has a design phase, typically for the following year construction (with the exception of 2022). Also shown is the contract administration effort by the design team for each project while under construction. b) Who are the primary customers for this service? All Departments and patrons of the Courthouse 2. Describe the problem this request addresses and why Whatcom County needs to address it. The Courthouse exterior project was a multiyear maintenance project. The County has only undertaken the first of this long series of repairs. 3. Options a) What other options have you considered? Why is this the best option? Deferred maintenance. The longer these improvements/repairs are put out into the future, the more the work will cost County tax payers. b) What are the specific cost savings? (Quantify) This project will be competitively bid and overall maintenance will be reduced. 4. Outcomes / Objectives a) What outcomes will be delivered and when? The phases slated for years 2023 and 2024 will be implemented and completed. b) How will you know whether the outcomes happened? The projects will be successfully completed. Completing the projects on time and within budget. 5. Other Departments/Agencies a) Will this ASR impact other departments or agencies? If so, please identify the departments and/or agencies impacted and explain what the impact(s) will be. The impacts will be minimal as the improvements are on the exterior of the courthouse. b) If another department or agency is responsible for part of the implementation, name the person in charge of implementation and what they are responsible for. Rob Ney 6. What is the funding source for this request? REET 63%/EDI 37% Monday, October 03, 2022 Rpt: ASR - BYDEPT Req and App :451 D • • Allocations are prepared in order to distribute common costs. This is necessary to use restricted revenue to fund these costs. • CE Allocations • AS Allocations • Custodial Maintenance Allocation • Tort Allocation :451 D • • The Executive Office balances the budget and provides the budget to the County Council 75 days before year end. The Executive also provides: • Tax ordinances • Budget ordinances • Six year capital facilities plan • Unified Fee Schedule :is1D14M=101►i1.I■!11111"I l► &MM0I! 011111 0WA*:A:1011120\VI=.` NMWO]LVA1 V 1= 01D1=DR:111D The Council deliberates on the budget and may: • Add or Delete Items • Reduce or Increase Items • Re -estimate Revenues • Add provisions restricting the expenditure of certain appropriations Section 6.60 Consideration and Adoption of the Budget. Prior to the adoption of any appropriation ordinances for the next budget cycle, the County Council shall hold a public hearing to consider the budget presented by the County Executive and shall hold any other public hearings on the budget or any part thereof that it deems advisable. The Council in considering the appropriation ordinances by the Executive, may delete or add items, may reduce or increase the proposed appropriations and may add provisions restricting the expenditure of certain appropriations; but it shall not change the form of the proposed appropriation ordinances submitted by the Executive. The appropriation ordinances adopted by the County Council shall not exceed the estimated revenues of the County for the next budget cycle for each fund including surpluses and reserves, but the Council may increase the amount of the estimated revenues contained in the budget presented by the Executive by reestimating the amount by motion passed by a minimum of five (5) affirmative votes or by creating additional sources of revenue which were not included in the proposed tax and revenue ordinances presented by the Executive. (Amended by ballot measure 1997 [refer to Ord. 97-042]; Amended by Ord. 2005-075 Exh. A) p ji ``, , TIM QUESTIONS? ryc r �_J Q ",• •1 } .i 'fit � - ' i 1 AN K YOU iministrative Services - Finance ndown" by Karin Beringer, WACO Parks & Recreation Park Ranger :> 160, 000, 000 $140, 000,000 $120, 000,000 $100, 000, 000 $80,000,000 $60,000,000 .540,000,000 520,000,000 Beginning Fund Balance Total Revenue Total Expenditures Net Rev (Exp) Budget Laps Net Rev (Exp) After Lapse Ending Fund Balance 2024-2026 Budget Lapse WHATCOM COUNTY General Fund Projection Revenue vs Expenitures 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 -Total Revenue ®Total Expenditures Projected 2024 Projected 2025 Projected 2026 2019 1 2020 1 2021 1 2022 1 2023 1 Projected 2024 Projected 2025 1 Projected 2026 $ 17,080,638 $ 20,511,677 $ 19,056,796 $ 24,141,180 $ 26,346,573 $ 32,257,632 $ 26,495,141 $ 17,598,914 $ 95,540,152 $ 97,101,898 $ 109,562,778 $ 109,551,328 $ 133,467,466 $ 118,771,176 $ 119,162,559 $ 120,336,840 $ 92,109,113 $ 98,556,779 $ 104,478,394 $ 107,345,935 $ 127,556,407 $ 133,129,862 $ 139,194,333 $ 143,233,719 $ 3,431,039 $ (1,454,881) $ 5,084,384 $ 2,205,393 $ 5,911,059 $ (14,358,686) $ (20,031,774) $ (22,896,879) $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ 10,650,389 $ 11,135,547 $ 11,458,698 $ 3,431,039 $ (1,454,881) $ 5,084,384 $ 2,205,393 $ 5,911,059 $ (3,708,297) $ (8,896,227) $ (11,438,181) $ 20,511,677 $ 19,056,796 $ 24,141,180 $ 26,346,573 $ 32,257,632 $ 28,549,335 $ 17,598,914 $ 6,160,732 8.00% \\co.whatcom.wa. us\root\Users\bben nett\Documents\Book3 WHATCOM COUNTY General Fund Projection Assumptions Revenue Changes Property Taxes Sales taxes growth Interest Income Expenditure Increases Wages Retirement Health Insurance All Other Payroll Costs Supplies Contracted Services Software & Equip Maintenance Intergovernmental Contracts Building Maintenance Fees Fuel, ER&R Admin Allocation & Tort Jail Transfer Transfer to Other Funds All Other Expenses Capital Outlay & Debt Service $ 325,000 4% 5% $ (500,000) $ (500,000) 3% 3% 8.32% 7.50% 8% 5% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 10% 3% 20% 3% 10% 5% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 0% 0% \\co.whatcom.wa.us\root\Users\bbennett\Documents\Book3 5160,000,000 $140, 000,000 $120, 000, 000 $100, 000,000 $ 80, 000, 000 $60,000,000 540,000,000 $20,000,000 Beginning Fund Balance Total Revenue Total Expenditures Net Rev (Exp) Budget Laps Net Rev (Exp) After Lapse Ending Fund Balance 2024-2026 Budget Lapse WHATCOM COUNTY General Fund Projection Revenue vs Expenitures 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Projected 2024 Projected 2025 Projected 2026 -Total Revenue -Total Expenditures 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Projected 2024 1 Projected 2025 Projected 2026 :P 1/,U6U,bI6 j LU,Sll,b// 19,Ubb,/9b 24,141,180 5 26,346,573 $ 32,257,632 $ 26,495,141 $ 14,815,027 $ 95,540,152 $ 97,101,898 $ 109,562,778 $ 109,551,328 $ 133,467,466 $ 118,771,176 $ 119,162,559 $ 120,336,840 $ 92,109,113 $ 98,556,779 $ 104,478,394 $ 107,345,935 $ 127,556,407 $ 133,129,862 $ 139,194,333 $ 143,233,719 $ 3,431,039 $ (1,454,881) $ 5,084,384 $ 2,205,393 $ 5,911,059 $ (14,358,686) $ (20,031,774) $ (22,896,879) $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ 7,987,792 $ 8,351,660 $ 8,594,023 $ 3,431,039 $ (1,454,881) $ 5,084,384 $ 2,205,393 $ 5,911,059 $ (6,370,894) $ (11,680,114) $ (14,302,856) $ 20,511,677 $ 19,056,796 $ 24,141,180 $ 26,346,573 $ 32,257,632 $ 25,886,738 $ 14,815,027 $ 512,171 6.00% \\co.whatcom.wa. us\root\Users\bbennett\Documents\Book3 WHATCOM COUNTY General Fund Projection Assumptions Revenue Changes Property Taxes Sales taxes growth Interest Income Expenditure Increases Wages Retirement Health Insurance All Other Payroll Costs Supplies Contracted Services Software & Equip Maintenance Intergovernmental Contracts Building Maintenance Fees Fuel, ER&R Admin Allocation & Tort Jail Transfer Transfer to Other Funds All Other Expenses Capital Outlay & Debt Service $ 325,000 4% 5% $ (500,000) $ (500,000) 3% 3% 8.32% 7.50% 8% 5% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 10% 3% 20% 3% 10% 5% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 0% 0% \\co.whatcom.wa. us\root\Users\bbennett\Documents\Book3 Highest Allowable Levy Levy 2024 Banked Capacity WHATCOM COUNTY Banked Capacity 2024 General Fund 2024 Levy Lid Lift 2024 Children Combined $ 37,532,077.03 $ 10,203,888.68 $ 33,264,898.49 $ 10,104,148.17 $ 4,267,178.54 $ 99,740.51 $ 4,366,919.05 WHATCOM COUNTY Satpal Singh Sidhu EXECUTIVE'S OFFICE County Executive 311 Grand Avenue, Suite 108 Bellingham, WA 98225 MEMORANDUM TO: Whatcom County Council, Elected Officials, and Department Heads FROM: Satpal Sidhu, County Executive RE: 2025-2026 Budget Outlook, Priorities, and Schedule DATE: May 29, 2024 The County is moving forward with our 2025-2026 biennial budget process to propose a financially sustainable budget to the County Council for adoption later this year. Over the last several years, we have made substantial investments in child care, housing and homeless services, criminal justice and crisis response, flood response and recovery, the Racial Equity Commission, and building acquisitions. Today, County employees are working hard to deliver on those community commitments and investments, and I want to recognize those incredible efforts and acknowledge the dedication and personal sacrifice that have made this progress possible. The County has used the unprecedented infusion of state and federal funds to deal with a years -long pandemic, devastating floods, and fentanyl and behavioral health crises. This has allowed us to stay ahead of increasing fiscal demands and maintain healthy fund balances. However, significant expansion in criminal justice staffing during the 2023-2024 biennial budget process and 2024 mid -biennium adjustments have put the County in the difficult position, as deficit spending begins to erode our General Fund balance. With increased services demands and large pending capital projects ahead of us, we must be resolute in ensuring fiscal prudence as we approach this next biennium. Current Financial Outlook: We project a General Fund balance of $28.5M to begin the next biennium. We are required to maintain a minimum fund balance of 15% of the previous year's General Fund revenues, which currently equates to approximately $20M (Maintaining a Minimum General Fund Balance — AD123100Z). There have been substantial increases in both staffing levels and wages over this past biennium. Staff expansion has been driven by evolving community expectations and Council priorities, while wage increases were necessary to recruit and retain well -qualified candidates after an extended period of high vacancy rates. These important investments to maintain a competitive workforce and an appropriate workload will need to be sustained going forward. The mid -biennium budget adjustments, oriented largely toward expansion of criminal justice staffing, have led us into significant deficit spending. The adjusted 2024 budget has $119,305,007 in budgeted WHATCOM COUNTY EXECUTIVE'S OFFICE 311 Grand Avenue, Suite 108 Bellingham, WA 98225 Satpal Singh Sidhu County Executive revenues and $134,802,388 in budgeted expenditures, resulting in $15,497,381 in expenditures over anticipated revenues. While actual expenditures will come in lower and our current fund balance is healthy, that balance will quickly diminish without strict fiscal discipline and responsible stewardship in our approach to the biennium budget process. Our County population is growing and so is the demand for expansion of social services like youth housing, shelters, overdose response, and basic needs, including food. We are seeing increased community requests for dedicated County spending to address urgent needs facing citizens in our community. The needs have been growing more pronounced over the past decade. The County should to look to our dedicated revenue sources (Behavioral Health Fund, Homeless Housing Fund, Healthy Children's Fund, etc.) to continue our ongoing efforts to address these social service needs of our community. We are in a time of economic uncertainty. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds will no longer be available to fill financial gaps in our criminal justice system, homeless services, affordable housing projects, food distribution system, etc., and we do not anticipate new federal investments for local governments. The Federal Reserve has maintained high interest rates, driving up the cost of borrowing. Consumers are buying fewer houses and other big -ticket items, and Whatcom County has observed stagnant sales tax revenues through the first quarter of 2024. The County must also maintain a healthy and stable fund balance to support the County's position for anticipated bond financing for large capital projects, including the new Public Health, Safety, and Justice facility and the Northwest Annex redevelopment project. This will be critical to achieve strong bond ratings, which can provide significant interest savings over the long term. Budget Priorities: I regularly hear from staff, elected officials, contractors, and stakeholders the need to expand capacity in our Administrative Services departments (Finance, HR, IT, Facilities), so they can keep pace with the growing needs and priorities of County departments. For context, we have experienced significant growth in County programs, including a 28% increase in staffing. Accordingly, departments should plan for a significant increase in their Administrative Services allocations across all operating funds. Additionally, we should expect to see significant increases in facilities maintenance fees, as well as ER&R and tort. I want to emphasize the importance of using the General Fund on the core services which the County is mandated to provide. We must consider the financial impact of criminal justice positions (Superior Court, District Court, Sheriff, Public Defender, and Prosecuting Attorney's Office) added over the last few years and plan for these costs into the next biennium. There is $2.7 million in available Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) to alleviate pressure, but this is only a short-term solution. We are WHATCOM COUNTY Satpal Singh Sidhu EXECUTIVE'S OFFICE &1'7%County Executive 311 Grand Avenue, Suite 108 Bellingham, WA 98225 deeply concerned about the impacts of proposed new rules for Public Defender caseload standards, which may require offsets in other areas of County spending to accommodate. Implementation of the Justice Project will be largely achieved through dedicated revenue from the new Public Safety, Health, and Justice Tax. We must successfully deliver on our commitments to the public, which will see a long-term payoff in increased public safety, reduced criminal justice costs, and an increase in health and wellbeing for justice involved individuals and their families. Guidance for Departments: We are aware that departments have pressing needs to advance their current initiatives and undertake new ones to improve efficiency. During the biennial budget process, we ask departments not to propose any new programs or services out of the General Fund. We encourage departments to look closely at base budgets and identify opportunities to reprioritize resources to achieve their goals. The Executive's Office and Finance Team remain supportive and available to assist departments through this process. The next biennium presents an opportunity to focus on securing advancements already made, sustaining core services, and supporting our employees, who are working so hard to accomplish those efforts. Continued investment in existing programs will ensure their stable foundation for decades to come. WHATCOM COUNTY EXECUTIVE'S OFFICE County Courthouse 311 Grand Ave. Suite #108 Bellingham, WA 98225 �GpM CO sP Gtia �gsHrx��r MEMORANDUM TO: Whatcom County Council THROUGH: Satpal Sidhu, County Executive FROM: Aly Pennucci, Deputy Executive CC: Kayla Schott-Bresler, Deputy Executive Brad Bennett, Finance Manager Randy Rydel, Finance Director RE: 2025-2026 Budget Analysis DATE: September 6, 2024 Satpal Singh Sidhu County Executive This memo is intended to help inform the County Council's budget discussions in advance of the Executive formally transmitting the 2025-2026 Biennial Budget on October 18th for review and adoption. It outlines structural challenges that are many years in the making and offers some short- and long-term policy options to address these issues. The budgetary decisions before Council are difficult ones, but the challenges are neither insurmountable nor unique to Whatcom County. According to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), "A true structurally balanced budget is one that supports financial sustainability for multiple years into the future..." Generally, a structurally balanced budget describes a budget where annual expenses do not exceed projected annual revenues. Whatcom County is facing a structural budget imbalance where ongoing expenditures for existing County services are outpacing projected annual revenues across several funds; based on analysis to date this is most acute in the General Fund (GF) and the County Road Fund.' The memo is primarily focused on the County's GF; however, the strategies to address the issues are applicable across other funds that are or may in the future present a structural imbalance. Strategies discussed in this memo are under consideration by Executive Sidhu as we work with the Finance Division and all County departments and offices to develop a balanced budget proposal for the 2025-26 biennium. We are seeking input from the Council on these strategies before finalizing a proposal. 1 Public Works Director Kosa will provide an update on the Road Fund to the Public Works and Health Committee on September 10th. There are other funds that may have similar structural imbalances (such as the Emergency Management Fund and the Ferry Fund), which the Executive's Office and Finance Division are still reviewing. I. Structural Budget Imbalance In 2022, the County Executive presented a balanced budget proposal for the 2023-2024 biennium assuming a sound financial position that allowed the County to continue to deliver core services and expand services in some areas in response to community needs. As the County prepared the 2023-2024 Biennium Budget, the Executive noted that while at that moment the financial position was sound, the national economic outlook was volatile and therefore thoughtful, measured, and timely decision making was warranted. That volatility became a reality as the County experienced inflationary cost increases on labor and the cost of goods and services. The effect of historically high rates of inflations, combined with decisions made through the biennial and supplemental budget actions to expand County services in many areas (i.e. from criminal justice and behavior health, to homeless services and fentanyl response, to climate resiliency and recreation opportunities), is increased pressures on the County's resources. In addition, there are several future obligations, including major capital projects such as the NW Annex and the new Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health facility, increasing costs associated with claims against the County, and labor contract renegotiation, that necessitate long term financial planning for the County. Further, forces outside of the County's control, such as the Washington State Bar Association's revised Standards for Indigent Defense Services, and other unfunded mandates from the State, will continue to increase County expenses. This is happening simultaneously with stagnation or declines in certain ongoing County revenue streams and as one-time resources from the American Rescue Plan Act are depleted, resulting in increased use of one-time fund balances2 and a structurally imbalanced budget. One way to see this structural imbalance is by looking at revenue growth compared to expenses. By 2026, expenses are projected to grow 15 percent compared to expenses in 2019 while revenue growth is projected to grow by only seven percent. As noted previously, this imbalance is most acute in the County's GF that supports many of the County's core services. Chart 1 illustrates the projected structural imbalance in the County's GF, illustrating that, before considering Additional Service Requests (ASRs), the projected average annual operating deficit in the GF for the 2025-2026 Biennial Budget is about $11 million. This again is due to increased cost pressures and the flattening of projected GF revenues. This projection assumes approval of a one percent increase in the Current Expense Levy for the GF in 2025 and 2026 and builds in some assumptions about cost increases to support Public Works' Equipment Rental and Revolving Fund (ER&R), Administrative Services cost increases, and adds a risk reserve for 2026 to reflect that certain County expenses are likely to increase related to open labor contracts, insurance premiums, other legal settlements, etc. z Fund balances are used to mitigate current and future risks (e.g., revenue shortfalls and unanticipated expenditures) and to ensure stable tax rates. The GFOA recommends, at a minimum, that general-purpose governments maintain unrestricted budgetary fund balance in their GF of no less than two months of regular general fund operating revenues or regular general fund operating expenditures. 2 140,000,000 130,000,000 120,000,000 110,000,000 100,000,000 90,000,000 80,000,000 Chart 1: General Fund - Expense v Revenue 2024 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Amended 2025 2026 Actual Actual Actual Actual Actual Budget Request Request Revenue —Expense (2025-2026 base budget) Average Annual Projected GF Deficit 2025-26: $10.71VI before ASRs are considered Based on the initial review of the ASRs3 submitted for the 2025-2026 biennium, and considering future liabilities as outlined above, that average deficit is likely larger if no other changes are made to increase resources or decrease spending. In the current year (2024), the projected GF operating deficit is $12.7 million. To balance, it is assumed that the County will: • Lapse $8.9 million of budgeted GF expenses. Put another way, we are assuming that departments will underspend their 2024 GF budgets by $8.9 million, equivalent to —6.5 percent of 2024 budgeted GF expenses; and • Use $3.9 million of one-time fund balance. Occasional use of underspend assumptions and fund balances to balance a budget hole are not in all cases an inherently bad thing, but delaying more targeted reductions in the absence of new revenues, and persistent use of fund balances to support ongoing expenses will pose problems in the future. 3We are reviewing —389 ASRs submitted for consideration in the 2025-2026 Biennial Budget; 59 percent are "Cost Maintenance" ASRs. Within those requests, there is about $3.1M of GF requests in 2025 and $2.7M in 2026 (more than half of those requests are cost maintenance ASRs). Cost Maintenance ASRs are typically small requests and do not involve new services or increased. They are intended to be an easy means of requesting increases due to inflation or increased software maintenance contracts. 3 How did we get here? As noted above, this structural imbalance is a result of a combination of stagnation in revenue growth, inflationary impacts on expenses, and new or expanded programs and services without commensurate increase in revenues or reductions in spending in other areas.' The impacts of inflation and wage growth on the budget's structure can be seen when looking at expenses for wages and benefits and FTE numbers. Since 2019, County expenses for wages and benefits in the GF increased by 50 percent. In the same period, County FTE positions, supported by all funds, increased by 23 percent (198.9 FTE). 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Chart 2: FTE Growth 2019-2024 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 ■ Annual increase 10.7 4.9 21.5 40.6 62.0 59.2 ■ Previous Year Base 855.2 865.9 870.8 892.3 932.9 994.9 The growth in the number of FTEs and the associated increases in the cost of wages and benefits reflects adjustments made in part to address decades of under-resourcing departments. A portion of federal ARPA dollars were used to address this historic pattern of under-resourcing and as those funds are depleted the need for those positions and funding remain if the County wants to maintain current levels of service. Just five departments account for more than two-thirds of the FTE increase (141.3 FTE): • Health and Community Services (67.3 FTE) • Sherriff's Office (21.0 FTE) • Public Works (21.0 FTE) • Public Defender's Office (19.0 FTE) • Parks and Recreation (13.0 FTE) Importantly, most FTE growth in Health and Community Services and Public Works are not paid out of the GF; however, the addition of these positions has increased work in other areas of 4 The County primarily relies on two conventional sources of local revenues, namely sales tax and property tax. State and federal funding, if any, are provided for very specific purposes and limited periods of time. This system of funding local governments from mid-1800s is outdated, and we intend to advocate for an overhaul of this system as we engaget with state partners in Olympia. 4 County services that are supported by the GF. Without an equivalent increase in resources in Administrative Services, we have seen those divisions stretched almost to a breaking point. There are several ASRs for consideration to modestly increase staffing and resources in those divisions to address this. It is not surprising to see this growth in wages and benefits expenses given that most County programs and services rely heavily on human labor so those inflationary impacts and expansion or addition of services will see an equivalent increase in personnel expenses. The recent uptick in public sector wages is in response to post -pandemic worker shortages and inflation. Many public sector employers adjusted wages in late 2023 and early 2024 that are more in line with adjustments the private sector made in 2021 and 2022; competitive salaries are fundamental to recruitment and retention of talented public sector workers. II. What are our tools? To address this structural imbalance while costs continue to increase, community needs continue to expand, and state mandates impact costs, County decision makers will need to work together to consider both the short and long-term options, including the implications of budget reduction strategies. Part of this process is recognizing where we are today, what is possible in the short-term to develop and adopt a balanced budget for the 2025-2026 biennium, and what are the longer -term strategies to recover from this structural imbalance. The Government Finance Officers Association provides resources for local government called Fiscal First Aid to help reverse periods or patterns of financial decline. At the core they identify three stages towards recovery: Bridge, Reform, and Transform. In the bridge stage, the goal is to avert immediate crises. In reform, the goal is to balance the budget without making things worse in the long -run. And in transform, the goal is to come back better, stronger, and more resilient than before. The County is currently in the "bridge" stage, where we have identified there is a problem and are taking some immediate steps to try to prevent worsening of the problem. Those steps include having public discussions about the budget challenge, implementing a hiring freeze, reviewing large new contract requests and delaying that spending where possible, and directing departments to prepare their 2025-2026 base budgets assuming no new resources are available. The Executive's goal is to develop a 2025-2026 Biennial Budget proposal that moves the County into the "reform" stage and identifies ongoing work to move into the "transform" stage by the next biennium. Strategies to reform: to deploy as part of the 2025-2026 Biennial Budget Note that not all of the strategies described below need to be fully deployed to move the County to the reform stage. In addition, this list is not exhaustive, other strategies could be deployed, like eliminating programs, implementing furloughs, layoffs, or freezing salaries (strategies that impact personnel would likely need to be bargained). Those options would benefit from information from the prioritization work described under "strategies to transform" section but if there are proposals to add new services in this biennium an offsetting cut should be identified. 5 Prioritize continuity of services. Prioritize any budget increases for those that are necessary to provide continuity of core County services. This will mean no increases, and in some cases may require decreases, in County GF expenses that do not support core services. Core services are those services that are mandated by statute, though there may be an opportunity for level of service decision -making within those mandates. Administrative services remain necessary to support all core functions. The Executive's Office is currently reviewing all ASRs, including any new non -departmental spending requests, to determine the overall impact of the requests and what is possible given current resource constraints. Of the approximately 398 ASRs submitted for consideration, about 239 (64%) are requests for expenses from the GF directly or requests from fund that have an impact on the GF (i.e. expenses from the Administrative Services Fund). The total amount of funding requests directly from the GF are summarized in Table 1 (these excludes some GF ASRs that we already identified as needing corrections); Staff will provide more details about the GF requests during the presentation on September 101" and information about all submitted ASRs in the next week or so. If there are specific areas of the County's budget the Council is interested in reducing to support other services, that input is welcome at this time. Table 1: GF Annual Service Requests (ASRs) Summary 20251 2026 Cost Maintenance ASRs 1,670,525 1,828,778 New or Expanded Programs and Services ASRs 1,520,374 830,729 Totall 3,190, 899 1 2,659,507 2. Use remaining one-time resources from the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF). The County has $2.7 million in one-time funding from the LACTF that have not been budgeted to date. The purpose of the LATCF program is to serve as a general revenue enhancement program where there have been fluctuations in revenues. 3. Reduce or eliminate transfers from the GF to other funds and redeploy or maximize use of dedicated fund sources: Remove the annual transfer from the GF to the Capital Facilities Reserve (current annual GF transfer is $500,000) until the GF budget is stabilized. This GF transfer supplements other traditional sources that we use for capital facilities including REET I, REET II, and Public Utilities Improvement (EDI). Amounts in the capital facilities reserve fund have not been earmarked for specific purposes; recently these funds were used for the purchase of Unity Street and N Commercial Street properties. b. Reduce the amount budgeted in the base budget for annual vacation cash outs to the historic average of $200,000. This is currently budgeted at $400,000 annually so would reduce GF expenses by $200,000 annually. c. Consider using a portion of the Behavioral Health Fund or the resources from the opioid settlement for existing GF expenses that support implementation of the County Councils 11 resolution identifying Whatcom County approaches to the fentanyl emergency, such as jail healthcare expenses or the drug taskforce. d. Consider redeploying some or all of the funding in the Community Priorities Fund, previously planned for the 23 Hour Crisis Relief Center, for other behavioral health investment currently supported by the GF ($2.3 million; one time). e. Continue to review all ASRs that impact the GF and determine if there are other restricted funds that could support the request. 4. Underspend assumptions: Ask all departments to assume a five to 10 percent GF underspend target in the 2025-2026 biennium. This will mean not immediately filling vacancies when they occur, reducing or delaying contracts, and reducing non -labor costs such as travel and training expenditures. This could be a request across all County operating funds; that would help slow spending overall and preserve options as the County engages in a prioritization exercise (see longer term strategies later in the memo). 5. Consider use of banked capacity in property tax levies. Property tax revenues are statutorily constrained to grow at just one percent plus the value of new construction annually. Until recently, the County for many years banked the one percent, contributing to the stagnation in revenue growth. Prior to 2020, there was a period of low inflation and increased revenues from new construction that resulted in annual increases in property tax revenues even during a period when the County did not utilize the annual one percent increase; that is no longer the case. (The current estimates of the projected deficit for the 2025-26 biennium assume a one percent increase in 2025 and 2026).5 The County could use banked capacity to increase revenues in the GF, Road Fund, Flood Control District, EMS Fund, and/or Healthy Children's Fund. This can be done through a councilmanic majority vote. The Council could utilize all of the banked capacity in a single year or could slowly incorporate the use of that banked capacity over multiple years on an individual fund basis. The banked capacity in the GFs current expense levy is $3.9 million — using this banked capacity is a long-term sustainable strategy to begin to transform the GF into a structurally balanced budget. Once banked capacity is levied, the County has the revenue annually without future legislative actions. Currently, Whatcom County's Current Expense Levy (CE Levy) rate is $0.51 per $1000 of assessed value, compared to an average rate of $0.80 per $1000 in other counties with populations between 100,000-500,000 (see Chart 3 below). If the banked capacity is used, the Whatcom County CE Levy rate would be $0.57 per $1000 of assessed value (using current valuations), still well below the average compared to other counties. S Double-digit sales tax growth also supported growth in GF expenses in recent years. However, the economy has cooled significantly and 2024 sales tax receipts are essentially flat compared to 2023. 7 $1.20 $1.00 $0.80 $0.60 $0.40 $0.20 Chart 3: 2024 Current Expense Levy Rate 0t L `A Lod Ja�� 2 �¢o �ta� ,��' •��' ram` �r�tti ��o`b oa�a ,pa oo� �r However, decisions related to use of the banked capacity should be weighed against the impact to taxpayers; if the Council chose to use all of the banked capacity for the GF Current Expense (CE) Levy, a homeowner whose home is appraised at $700,000 would see an annual property tax increase of about $45 dollars. In Table 2, we calculate the average impact to homeowners and the additional annual revenue the County would collect if: (1) the one percent increase is applied to several levies; (2) if a portion of banked capacity was authorized for the CE Levy or the Road Levy; or (3) if the Council authorized use of the entire banked capacity for the CE or Road Levies. H. Table 2: Banked Capacity Analysis 2024 Property Tax Annual Allowance: Use a Portion of Use All Banked 1% Increase Banked Capacity - Capacity 3% Increase Impact to County Impact County Impact County Impact County Avg HO* Revenue to Avg Revenue to Avg Revenue to Avg Revenue $387.00 33.6M HO* $3.87 0.3M HO* $11.61 1.OM HO* $44.83 3.9M Current Expense Levy Road Levy $522.84 21.OM $5.23 0.2M $15.69 0.6M $91.56 3.7M Flood Control $74.40 6.5M $0.74 0.1M Zone District EMS Levy $154.11 13.4M $1.54 OAM Cons Futures $16.04 1.4M $0.16 0.01M Children's $117.28 10.1M $1.17 OAM Initiative TOTAL $1,271.67 86.OM $12.71 0.9M $27.30 1.6M $136.39 7.6M HO = Homeowner *The cost to an average homeowner is calculated using a Median Home value of $700,000 based on 2024 Redfin data. If the use of the full CE Levy banked capacity is authorized, the projected average annual deficit would be reduced to $6.8 million (compared to $10.7 million). If that is combined with a five percent underspend target in 2025, and strategies 3a, 3b, and 4 described above, the 2026 projected ending fund balance would be relatively healthy (about 19% of projected annual expenses) before ASRs are considered. This approach would provide time to undertake the strategies to transform the GF budget described in the next section and should help stabilize the GF into the future. Strategies to Transform: Medium- or longer -term strategies to develop during the 2025-2026 Biennium 1. Budget Priority Exercise: The Executive intends to lead a process, working with the County Council, departments, and separately elected offices, to inventory all County programs and services and develop criteria to categorize those programs and services into priority areas. We will use this exercise to quantify options if areas identified as lower priority were reduced or eliminated. This should start with identifying those services that are statutorily required and those that are more discretionary (though may be addressing a significant community need). In addition, a process to seek community input should be considered. Engage in medium- and long-term financial planning. Financial planning allows policymakers to center longer -term financial sustainability considerations in near -term budget choices. See additional discussion below about why financial planning is a tool to help the County transform to a structurally balanced budget. N 3. Develop a fiscal transparency program. Introducing a fiscal transparency program to enhance financial reporting and fiscal impact analysis (e.g., adopting requirements for Fiscal Notes). This would be combined with introducing efficiencies in internal and legislative approval process for contracting, procurement, and supplemental budget adjustments to reduce administrative burdens that can increase costs and slow down the delivery of County services. The goal would be to design the program to ensure that Council has the tools to provide oversight and provide accountability to the public while allowing for more efficient delivery of County services and enhanced financial reporting and forecasting to inform financial decisions. 4. State Legislative and other advocacy. New state mandates are creating a situation where county demands will outpace revenues in short order. Advocacy at the state level is necessary to increase state shared revenues for core services and to ensure new mandates are fully funded. 5. New Revenue avenues. The County's general fund will likely need to be maintained for statutory obligations. Pursuing new revenue streams for community priorities (such as parks and recreation) is necessary to maintain levels of service. Why do a Financial Plan? The Revised Code of Washington requires local governments adopt a balanced budget. However, this requirement only applies to the year being budgeted, at the time that the budget is being first adopted, and is silent on future years. However, decisions made in the current year's budget have lasting implications for future years. Furthermore, the underlying economic conditions upon which those initial budget decisions are made will change in the future. The Executive's Office will work with the Finance Division to create a process to generate and regularly update long-term financial plans for all funds, which will include summary information, assumptions, and projected cash balances. We will apply a set of publicly available assumptions to county expenditure and revenue data to project future revenues and expenditures and identify future financial challenges and opportunities. This will result in a projection of the sustainability of current budget decisions. This approach will allow policymakers to center longer -term financial sustainability considerations in near -term budget choices. These plans will be a tool for Council to consider prior to significant budget decisions, to highlight future year sustainability. The financial plan will memorialize the projections and provide a basis for comparisons as projections are revised. Next Steps Following discussion with the Council, the Executive's Office will continue to work with Finance and all County departments to finalize a Proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget. As needed, additional input from Council will be requested to inform that proposal. 10 2025 2026 Biennial Budget Discussion SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 Overview of Discussion "A true structurally balanced budget is one that supports financial sustainability for multiple years into the future..."" Government Finance Officers Association Problem Statement: The County faces a structural budget imbalance where annual revenues are not keeping pace with annual expenses Projected annual revenues versus expenses How did we get here? • Tools — Short and longer -term strategies • Next Steps General Fund: Expense v Revenue 2019 Actual 140,000,000 130,000,000 120,000,000 110,000,000 100,000,000 90,000,000 80/000/000 Chart 1: General Fund - Expense v Revenue 2020 Actual Revenue 2021 2022 2023 Actual Actual Actual 2024 Amended 2025 2026 Budget Request Request J Expense (2025-2026 base budget) Average Annual Projected GF Deficit 2025-26: $10.7M before ASRs are considered Additional Cost Pressures Additional Service Requests (ASRs) About 390 ASRs submitted across all funds • —60% of the 390 = "Cost Maintenance" (represent increased costs of existing programs) • —40% = New programming (expand or create programs in response to community need, continue previously approved one-time funding) GF ASRr, 2025 Request Cost Maintenance ASRs 1,670,525 New Program / Continue One-time funding 1,520,374 ASRs Total* 3,190,899 *Excludes some GF ASRs already identified as needing corrections 2026 Request 1,828,778 830,729 2,659,507 GF Additional Service Reauests - Exomoles Example ASRs: New FTE supported by the GF 7253 Council Legislative Coordinator- Policy 7070 County Clerk Senior Deputy 7042 Public Defender Behavioral Health Aide 7285 & 7284 Superior Court Superior Court Services Manage Example ASRs: New or Expanded Program or Requests to continue one-time funding 7220 7437 7228 + 7236 7046 7329 Assessor Spatialest - online public information 75,840 Non -Departmental Executive Contingency 20,000 65,100 55,000 — Ph 1 150,000 t Parks & Recreation I Parks Trailer Additions + ER&R Public Defender Extra Help, clerical, for Case Mg scanning Sheriff Digital Forensics Infrastructure 79,632 20,000 10,200 55,000 J Report showing all GF-ASRs is available here: 2025-2026 Budget Webpage. ASRs related to other funds will be added. Additional Cost Pressures Other cost pressures • Capital Facilities (i.e., NW Annex and the new CJ & BH facility, Sheriff's Office) • Increasing insurance premiums and claims against the County • Labor contracts that will be renegotiated in 2026 • State mandated increased (i.e., public defense caseload standards) How did we get here? • Inflation rates at a generational high combined with decades of under- resourcing County services ■ Inflation increased the costs of all the goods and services the County provides, including significant pressure on labor costs. ■ High inflation systematically weakens the purchasing power of County resources. ■ Property tax revenue not keeping pace with inflation (1% cap plus new construction) and many years of banking capacity, contributing to revenue stagnation while population and service needs grew. • Use of one-time resources (federal funds and fund balances) to support new or expanded County services that became ongoing, contributed to the structural imbalance What are our tools? • To address the structural budget imbalance, there are three stages to consider: Bridge, Reform, and Transform 1. In Bridge, the goal is to avert immediate crises 2. In Reform, the goal is to balance the budget without making things worse in the long -run The Executive's goal is to develop a 2025-2026 Biennial Budget proposal that moves the County into the "reform" stage and identify the ongoing work needed to move into the "transform" stage 3. In Transform, the goal is to come back better, stronger, and more resilient than before Source: GFAO Strategies to reform Options: 1. Prioritize continuity of services — approve ASRs that support current levels of service. Expanded or new services require a reduction to offset new spending. 2. Use remaining one-time resources from the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) to bridge to reform ($2.7 million of one-time funding) 3. Reduce or eliminate transfers from the GF to other funds and redeploy or maximize use of dedicated fund sources 4. Impose underspend assumptions in the GF S. Consider use of banked capacity in property tax levies GF Banked Capacity 2024 Property Tax Impact to Avg County HO* Revenue Annual 1% Increase Impact to Avg County HO* Revenue Use a Portion of Banked Capacity 1M Impact to Avg County HO* Revenue Use All Banked Capacity Impact to Avg County HO* Revenue Current Expense Levy $387.00 33.6M $3.87 0.3M $11.61 1.OM $44.83 HO = Homeowner *The cost to an average homeowner is calculated using a Median Home Value of $700,000 based on 2024 Redfin data. 3.9M GF Banked Capacity: 2024 Current Expense Levy Rate $1.20 $1.00 1 :1 $0.60 $0.40 $0.20 $1.08 $1.04 $0.92 $0.77 $0.75 $0.72 $0.70 $0.58 $0.51 $0.58 Grant Cowlitz Yakima Skagit Thurston Benton Franklin Clark Spokane Kittitas Kitsap Whatcom Whatcom w/ banked capacity Scenario using a selection of strategies Projected Ending Fund — current projections before ASRs are fully considered Projected Ending Fund — Use of Select Reform Strategies (banked capacity, one-time revenue, 2025 underspend, reduce expense by $700k) Beginning Fund Balance Projected Revenue Projected Expenses (before ASRs) Annual surplus (deficit) Projected Ending Fund Balance Ending Fund Balance (% of Operating Expense) 28.5M 21.0M 31.2M 34.70M 121.3M 121.1M 125.2M 125.OM 128.8M 135.1M 121.7M 134.5M (7.5M) (13.9M) 3.5M (9.4M) 21.01MI 7.OM 34.7M 25.2M 16% 5% 28% 19% Strategies to transform Options: 1. Budget Prioritization Exercise 2. Medium- and long-term financial planning 3. Develop and Implement a Fiscal Transparency Program 4. State Legislative and other advocacy S. New Revenues Next Steps • Continue reviewing ASRs and options to balance with input from the Council • Finalize Proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget and transmit to Council on October 18 2025 2026 Biennial Budget Discussion COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE SEPTEM BER 24, 2024 General Fund (GF) Structural Deficit The County faces a structural budget imbalance where annual revenues are not keeping pace with annual expenses, requiring reliance on fund balance to support ongoing operations Projected Annual Operating Deficit* 2025-2026 Biennium Base Budget Submittals With ASRs** + 2026 Risk Reserve 2025 2026 Average -7.4M -14.0M -10.7M -9.8M -16.7M -13.2M Note: Based on best available info as 9124; as Finance refines technical details these numbers may change. *Projected Annual Operating Surplus (Deficit) = Annual Revenues —Annual Expenses If the result is a negative number, there is a structural budget deficit, if positive, fund is structurally balanced. **Most ASRs submitted are cost maintenance requests or resources necessary to support current service levels (i.e., ASRs to support Administrative Services, Assessor's Office, Treasurer's Office). Addressing the Deficit To address the issue, GF expenses must be reduced, revenues increased, or a combination of both Other considerations as you weigh the options: • County minimum fund balance policy: 15% of the previous year's General Fund revenues • At least since 2019, the County has maintained a 20-25% balance • A stable fund balance is important as the County prepares to issue debt to finance major capital facilities and to provide a buffer for emergent needs • In previous budget cycle, the County assumed a 5% lapse to balance and meet the 15% requirement • Under current conditions, if no new resources are provided, department budgets will be too tight to assume a lapse Work done to date or underway • Implemented a 2024 hiring freeze and revisiting large new contract requests not yet executed, delaying spending where possible • GF budget limits for 2025-26 reduced by $10M (compared to the 2024 Amended GF Budget) and departments directed to prepare budget proposals assuming no new resources Example: The GF support for the Health Department was reduced by -$1M annually for the 2025-26 biennium • Developing a budget prioritization process for 2025 that will include: ■ Reviewing all County expenses to identify efficiencies and spending reduction options ■ Consider alternative revenues to support GF expenses; seek additional external funding and opportunities to redirect GF expenses to other restricted funds ■ Prioritize allocation of funds based on community needs and County priorities Options to balance the GF 1. Continuity of Services 2. Reduce Level of Services (LOS) Assumptions applied to both options: Use 1% annual property tax increase on current expense levy ($336k) Use one-time Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency ($2.7 million) Options 1 1. Continuity of Services ■ Focus on maintaining current LOS, provide time to identify ongoing efficiencies, service reductions that have the least impact on the community, alternative funding sources or new revenues ■ Use banked capacity (reducing the ongoing deficit by $3.9 million) ■ 5% lapse assumption in 2025, complete budget prioritization exercise to identify ongoing cuts or new resources for 2026 and beyond = N$10 M Projected Outcome: ■ Maintain a fund balance of 20-25% of prior year revenue growing modestly year -over - year; establishing stability to support debt issuance for major capital projects ■ Moving towards structurally balanced budget for the 2027-2028 biennium Option 1: Impact of $3.9M Banked Capacit Banked capacity helps: ■ Maintain increased investments in Law and Justice departments added or made permanent in the 2023-24 Biennium or Mid Biennium Budgets, including positions added to the Sheriff's Office, Prosecuting Attorney's Office, Public Defender's Office, Conflict Counsel... ■ Support investments to address under resourcing in Administrative Services and requests for additional resources from the Assessor, Auditor, Treasurer, Clerk, and Superior Court ■ Provides resources to support new Medical Examiner's Office ■ Maintains base budgets and provides modest cost -of -living adjustments for non -departmental investments such as: Food Bank, Domestic Violence Commission, and Senior Centers (through the Parks budget) 500,000,000 450,000,000 400,000,000 350,000,000 300,000,000 250,000,000 200,000,000 150,000,000 In 2024, property tax revenues that support County provided services make up 14.1% of total taxes paid. 100,000,000 In 2010, 18.2% of property tax 50,000,000 revenues* supported these County 0 services. 2010 2015 2020 2024 ■ County Road District Conservation Futures Affordable Housing ■ EMS Districts ■ State ■ Flood Control Zone ■ Port of Bellingham Rural Library District ■ School Districts Cities ■ Fire Districts ■ Water & Sewer Districts ■ Cemetery Districts Park & Recreation Districts Hospital Districts During the same period, the State's portion increased from 23.5% to 28.3 *Property tax revenues that support direct County services in this calculation include the following levies: Current Expense, Mental Health, Election Reserve, Dev. Disabilities, Veteran's Relief, Children's Initiative, County Road District Option 1— Banked capacity (Impact of GF and Road Fund) If the full GF banked capacity is used, the impact from adding that capacity to a homeowner with an assessed value of $700k is —$45 annually for GF; $92 from the Road Fund RF ($137 total). How do Whatcom County's property tax compare: Whatcom County (pop 238k) Skagit County (pop 133k) General 43,740,134 (includes HCF) EMS 1313941873 Con. Futures Flood Total Total Per capita 1/394/326 20,958,400 85,954,221 Current $361 With GF banked capacity: $378 With GF and Road BC: $417 30,150,959 9,680,453 11021,199 18, 866, 212 59,718,823 $449 Option 2 2. Reduce Level of Services (LOS) ■ Focus on spending reductions - no new spending, any necessary ASR must be accommodated through service reductions ■ Cut expenses by $8M in '25 and '26*, reducing LOS ■ —3-6M* in other service reductions to accommodate mandatory cost increase within remaining base budgets Projected Outcome: ■ Fund balance at end of 2026 15-18% of prior year revenue, declining year -over -year ■ GF continues to project structural imbalance into the next biennium, relying on fund balance to support ongoing operations annually *Cuts could be offset in the short-term if the Council chose to reallocate funds in the Community Priorities for GF expenses Option 2: Impact of a 3-5% reduction Examples of what we heard: • Decreased capacity for Prosecutor's Office to prosecute cases, and ability to provide services and collaborate with other agencies, include victim advocacy and diversion programs, and services aimed at crime prevention and rehabilitation or reducing recidivism • In the Sheriff's office impacts include: • Staff reductions in the Corrections Bureau that would strain the remaining staff, increasing workloads, potentially leading to safety risks, decreased morale, and higher staff turnover • In patrol, reduced resources for the training and equipment needed to effectively, efficiently, and safely perform law enforcement duties • Inability to complete or meet statutory required services by the Assessor, Auditor, District, PDS' new permit timeline requirements.... • Risks Medical Examiner's accreditation • Reduced staffing and hours open to the public in the Treasurer's office, that could reduce tax revenues from delayed or deferred revenue collections Option Comparison NOLLpt.ionl I Option 2 Pros Limited tax increase (-$4/year for homeowner w/$700k AV) Maintains current LOS Moves County towards structurally balanced budget x Stabilizes fund balance x (exceed policy, positive impact on debt issuance; reserves for future liabilities) Cons Increase taxes (-$48/year from the GF for 1% + banked capacity) x Reduces LOS Ongoing projected reliance on fund balance x KI Next Steps • Update Council on Executive's proposal on October 8 • Finalize Proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget and transmit to Council week of October 14 Questions? WHATCOM COUNTY EXECUTIVE'S OFFICE County Courthouse 311 Grand Ave. Suite #108 Bellingham, WA 98225 �GpM CO sP Gtia �gsHrx��r MEMORANDUM TO: Whatcom County Council THROUGH: Satpal Sidhu, County Executive FROM: Aly Pennucci, Deputy Executive CC: Kayla Schott-Bresler, Deputy Executive Brad Bennett, Finance Manager Randy Rydel, Finance Director RE: 2025-2026 Budget Recommendations DATE: October 8, 2024 Satpal Singh Sidhu County Executive Development of the Executive's 2025-2026 Biennial Budget proposal is in its final stages. The Executive will present the Council with a budget that honors our commitments to serve the public, ensures organizational stability and resiliency, and aligns with our shared values and vision. Following recent discussions with the Council about the budget challenges facing the County and the options to address those challenges, this memo describes what the Executive intends to include when transmitting the Proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget to the Council on October 18tn Background The discussions between the Executive and the Council to date put a spotlight on the structural budget imbalance the County faces, where the cost of providing needed services to the County's growing population and businesses are outpacing the County's revenues. We have shown that Whatcom County's history of low property tax rates and annual collections, that were in place even before the State imposed the 1% cap on annual property tax increases, combined with decisions to not take that 1% annual increase for many years, resulted in the County's annual property tax collections for general County services being comparatively low even as the economy has grown. Even with these dynamics, for many years the County managed to maintain and, in some cases expand, services, relying on an extended period of growth in other revenue streams that support the General Fund (GF) (i.e., sales tax revenue, interest earning growth, and property tax revenue growth due to new construction), and use of one-time resources (i.e., ARPA funding during the pandemic). With the flattening of those other sources of GF revenues and those short-term tools being mostly depleted, compounded by the historically high inflation rates that have increased the cost of providing County services, the choices today are either cutting services to reduce costs, or increasing revenues to maintain current level of service.' Executive's Sidhu's recommendations for this biennial budget focus on reducing deficit spending, investing in areas that are under resourced, maintaining services for the community, and stabilizing the County's financial trajectory. This will allow the County to be better prepared to sustain future fluctuations in revenues, address emergent service needs and other occasional financial surprises, and deliver on commitments to the community in terms of current services and new capital facilities. Financial stability and resiliency are the core pillars of the Executive's proposal. This recommendation includes proposing to use the banked capacity the County has available in both the General Property Tax levy and in the Road Fund levy. A recommendation to increases taxes is not taken lightly, and this change alone is not enough to fully address the structural imbalance that County faces over the longer term or the requests to increase investments in certain areas.Z In addition to stabilizing revenue, the Executive's starting point for the 2025-2026 Proposed GF Budget included a decrease in general fund expenditures from the previous biennium. The starting point for departments as they prepared their budget proposals for the 2025-2026 biennial was 7% less in 2025 and 6% less in 2026 than the 2024 amended budget. However, as departments prepared their budgets they determined that some cost increases could not be absorbed within those budget limits; most ASRs that increase expenses are requested to address those cost increases or to address ongoing resource needs to maintain current service levels (departments were not instructed to make service reductions in this biennium). These initial reductions and a recommendation to use the banked capacity are combined with a commitment to engage in ongoing long-term financial planning for all funds, introducing fiscal note requirements to inform policy decisions, and to conduct a budget priority exercise in 2025 to identify efficiencies and ongoing spending reductions, or new revenue options, to further stabilize the County's finances. Those steps will allow us to thoughtfully identify areas of reductions that would have the least impact on the community, and approach the state regarding new long-term/ongoing sources of funds. Failure to address the revenue side will only make the problem worse over time, requiring ongoing and increasing service reductions and limiting the ability for the County to respond to emergent needs. Further, it weakens our position as we consider issuing debt for major capital projects and asking the state and others to support investments in Whatcom County. 1 Note that while there has been some expansion, there has also been a pattern of underinvesting in certain areas of the County's operations (e.g., the mismatch between the growth and expansion of services in some County departments without an equivalent increase in resources in Administrative Services). z Example: requests to significantly increase annual ongoing funding to address food insecurity or senior services in Whatcom County cannot be accommodated even after taking banked capacity unless there are reductions in other County services or new resources are identified. 2 There is still time to inform these recommendations and we look forward to continuing discussions with the Council as we finalize the proposal. Recommended Option — Continuity of Services The Executive's Office has spent considerable time during this budget process speaking with separately elected officials and department heads regarding resource needs, new state mandates, and public expectations on level of service (LOS). It is increasingly clear that this is an institution under stress, and despite the valiant efforts of our employees, this is affecting our ability to deliver critical internal and external services in a timely, efficient, and responsible manner. Further cuts would exacerbate this stress, affecting our levels of customer service, and our ability to recruit and retain high -quality employees. In light of this, the Executive's proposed budget is focused on stabilizing revenue to allow for continuity of service. The budget accommodates cost increases for current services (i.e. increased cost of materials and other cost maintenance activities), investments in Administrative Services and other areas of under-resourcing identified by County departments, and substantial investments in community priorities (i.e. fentanyl response, homelessness, childcare) through dedicated revenue sources outside the general fund. The Executive proposes the use of banked capacity in the GF and Road Fund to move the organization towards stability. This is a first step toward addressing several decades of underinvestment. Benefits of this approach include maintaining levels of service to the community, stabilizing the fund balance and moving the County towards a structurally balance budget, and allowing the County to increase staffing in certain areas to meet demand and modernize our systems for efficient service delivery. Proposals for additional revenue: 1. Apply the 1% annual property tax increase on the General Fund levy and road fund and the banked capacity for both levies. This will allow the County to: • Maintain investments in public safety departments added or made permanent in the 2023-24 biennium, including positions added to the Sheriff's Office, Prosecuting Attorney's Office, Public Defender's Office, and Conflict Counsel; • Address areas of under resourcing, including the Administrative Services divisions, allowing us to staff more adequately and modernize our processes and systems, and investment in the Treasurer, Auditor, and Assessor's Offices • Maintain modest ongoing investments in community programs (e.g., food bank and senior centers) through the general fund. • Maintain an adequate fund balance in the GF to establish stability to support debt issuance for major capital project, consistent with recommendations from the County's bond consultant and moving the County towards a structurally balanced budget. • Mitigate some of the reductions that would otherwise be necessary for services and projects supported by the Road Fund. This includes restoring the following, which were cut in the PW Department's proposed budget: 3 o $2M in capital projects, which would restore the small area paver to its original $750K budget, and restore the 2 resurfacing projects for Axton Road and Northwest Drive. o $2M in ER&R payments on the inequity deficit payments o $3.4M in operations, which would restore ■ $1M annually in chip sealing, ■ $110K in dust control ■ $665K to restore pre -level ■ $165K in shoulder work o Restore the use of larger crew response during storm response by utilizing overtime o The approval of a levy lift would allow us to restore the ASRs that increased the level of service beyond that of 2024 levels. Major items include: o Restore the hiring of an additional 5 Road Maintenance Workers and 2 Senior Road Maintenance Workers, which would cost $640K annually. o Restore the implementation of a modern geographic information systems -centric enterprise asset management system, which would cost $1.69M in one-time cost during the biennium, and $300K in annual software maintenance costs The banked capacity in the GF levy is $3.9 million and about $3.7 million in the Road Fund. Using this banked capacity is a long-term sustainable strategy to move the County toward a structurally balanced budget. Once banked capacity is levied, the County has the revenue annually without future legislative actions. Homeowners in unincorporated areas of the County would see the biggest impact to their property tax bills because the Road Fund only applies to unincorporated areas. The impact of the combined increases to an average homeowner in unincorporated Whatcom County with an assessed value of $650,000 would be about $127 annually; in incorporated areas of the County, where only the GF increase applies, the impact would be about $42 annually).3,4 Again, the discrepancy between unincorporated and incorporated areas is due to the delivery of the County's road fund services to unincorporated areas; incorporated areas would see these costs reflected through their city property tax levies. 2. Use the one-time Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Funding (LATCF) The County has $2.7 million in one-time funding from the LACTF that has not been budgeted to date. The purpose of the LATCF program is to serve as a general revenue enhancement program where there have been fluctuations in revenues. 3. Increases in the Unified Fee Schedule. The proposal includes increases to some service fees in the Unified Fee Schedule as recommended by County departments who provide fee funded services, to better reflect 3According to data collected by Redfin, in August 2024, the median sale price for a home in Whatcom County was $669k. https://www.redfin.com/county/3105/WA/Whatcom-County/housing-market. Zillow estimates the average The average Whatcom County, WA home value is $603,556,( https://www.zillow.com/home- values/2086/whatcom-county-wa ). 4Senior citizens or persons with disabilities in Washington State may qualify for a property tax reduction under the property tax exemption for senior citizens and people with disabilities program. See https://www.whatcomcounty.us/265/Property-Tax-Exemption for more information. 4 the cost of those services (though would still not achieve full cost recovery in most cases). The budget instructions provided to departments in preparing their budgets and consistent with County Policy AD123400Z, request that department heads propose fees to cover the cost of the service provided. The proposed increases in the biennial try to balance cost recovery with impacts to users (to receive full cost recovery across all fees would likely require a significantly greater increases). Examples of changes and the potential impacts are provided in Appendix 1. Proposed changes to GF Expenses: Changes to GF expenses includes a combination of reductions, adding in cost increases to base budget services (e.g., Tort costs are estimated to increase by about $1.2 million per year compared to the last biennium), supporting ASRs to maintain current services levels and address areas of under-resourcing, and establishing a modest reserve to address pending liability and other areas that we know will need resources in this biennium. 1. Reducing GF Expenses In terms of reductions, the proposed budget will cut $700,000 of GF expenses that are in the initial base budget. This includes cutting the $500,000 annual contribution to a capital reserve fund in this biennium, and reducing funding for annual vacation cash out program from $400,000 to $200,000. This is in addition to reductions already assumed when assigning budget targets to departments (i.e., the GF allocation to the Department of Health and Community Services was reduced annually by about $1 million compared to 2024). In addition, the proposal will include a 3-5% lapse assumption in 2025 and would work to identify reductions in GF expenses or identification of new external funding of about $4-6M in 2026, following a budget prioritization exercise. This will be necessary to continue to maintain services and address emergent needs. 2. Supports ASRs to maintain current services levels and address resource needs The proposed budget will include resources to support ASRs submitted from the Departments; this includes direct GF expenses, and GF resources that would be transferred from the GF to the Administrative Services fund to support resource needs in Administrative services (including facilities); at this time, we estimate that about half of those costs represent spending that will need to be absorbed within existing budgets if addition revenues are not available. Please see Appendix 2 for a more detailed list of the Additional Service Requests (ASRs) related to the GF that this proposal could support (note that this list may be modified as we finalize the proposed budget). 3. Creating a reserve for pending liabilities The Executive may propose establishing a reserve over the biennium to address pending liabilities (e.g., PD caseload standards; needed replacement of our telecommunications system that is still being defined, open labor contracts) and areas we know will need additional investment in this biennium but the details are not yet fully developed for a specific budget addition (e.g., additional investments in the Human Resources division, 5 including countywide resources to address employee morale and ensure our employees feel safe and are supported so they can deliver and continuously improve services to the community). As the budget details are finalized the Executive will determine if there are resources available to create this reserve. Alternative Option (not recommended) — Reduction in Services If the Council rejects the proposal to apply the banked capacity in this biennium, the alternative approach is to cut expenses in both the general fund and road fund in this budget cycle. This is not recommended because it would negatively impact the community by reducing services, and would continue and worsen the structural imbalance in both funds. Revenue changes This alternative option would not use the banked capacity but would apply the 1% annual property tax increase on the GF levy and Road Fund and assumes using the one-time LATCF ($2.7 million) for GF expenses. Property taxes for the average homeowner in unincorporated Whatcom County with an assessed value of $650,000 would increase by about $8.50 annually; in incorporated areas where the Road Fund Levy does not apply, the increase would be about $3.60. In addition, this alternative option would also assume increases to most service fees in the Unified Fee Schedules to better reflect the cost of those services included in the recommended option. Expense changes Without the banked capacity, any mandatory cost increases or critical new investments from the GF or the Road Fund need to be absorbed within existing budgets. Under those conditions, with budgets so tight, it is not advisable to include any lapse assumptions in the budget which means that expenses must be reduced to absorb cost increases and maintain an ending fund balance in the GF of at least 15% of prior year's revenues; in this scenario the Executive would still recommend that the fund balance target should be closer to 20%. The current estimate is that GF expenses will need to be cut by about $7 million annually (about 6% of the GF base budget expenses); this would allow the estimated $3.5-4.5 million of mandatory cost increases to be absorbed (e.g., the Tort costs), make some investments in the Administrative Services department, and limits the use of fund balance for ongoing expenses to an amount that will result in an ending fund balance that meets or exceeds the 15% requirement. In addition, without using the banked capacity in the Road Fund, the cuts described by Director Kosa at the September 10, 2024, Committee of the Whole meeting cannot be mitigated. If using the banked capacity is rejected by the council, the Executive would make the following GF reductions: 1. $700,000 of cuts also assumed in the recommended option 11 Pausing the $500,000 annual contribution to a capital reserve in this biennium and reducing funding for annual vacation cash out program). This is in addition to the reductions already assumed when establishing base budget limits described in the previous section. 2. Approximately $1.5M in reductions to public safety and criminal justice labor costs ■ Sheriff's Office --$1M cut (equivalent to 4 patrol deputies, 4 corrections deputies); ■ Prosecuting Attorney's Office ——$200,000 cut (equivalent to 1-2 FTE)5; and ■ Superior Court, Superior Court Clerk, District Court and District Court Probation —1% cut. Public Safety departments comprised 26.7% of the County 2023-2024 Biennial Budget overall and 52.8% of the 2023-2024 General Fund's budget. Achieving a $7M reduction in GF expenses is difficult without impacting those departments. Please see Appendix 3 for additional details about the impacts of reductions in Public Safety. 3. Cut —$3M annually from GF labor costs, achieved through furloughs, closure days, or layoffs. If this option is necessary, the Executive's preferred approach is to use closure days or furloughs. This avoids rushed layoff decisions without time to thoughtfully balance the impacts on delivery of services to community and on County employees. The County would save about $200,000 of GF for every 1 closure or furlough day; about 15 days would be required to save $3 million annually. Any decisions about furloughs and the layoff process that impacts represented employees would need to be bargained. Furloughs would not include most positions in the Sheriff's Office. Although it is not a viable ongoing strategy, there is about $3 million in the Community Priorities Fund that was allocated for specific purposes but is not yet committed to any specific project or organization. This could be a one-year strategy to avoid furloughs, or other cuts described here, if the Council wished to re-examine its ARPA spending plan. 4. Cut—$500,000 from Non -department funding Eliminating what has been ongoing non -departmental funding in the County's base budget for the Food Bank, Northwest Regional Council, and the Domestic Violence Commission (note that one-time resources provided from federal COVID relief funds are not considered part of the County's ongoing base budget commitments) 5. Cut—$1-1.5 million GF from the following Departments: Parks and Recreation, Planning and Development Services, Public Works, and Health and Community Services ■ 3% reduction to the Parks and Recreation Department, including eliminating all funding for Senior Services and the East Whatcom Regional Resource Center included in Parks annual base budget. ■ 1-2% reduction to Planning and Development Services budget. Director Personius reports that any reduction in funding —or if basic ASR's for SB 5290 permit fee refund opt -out options are not granted —would require a reduction in core permit services. ■ Additional $460,000 cut to Health and Community Services budget that would reduce funding for the Nurse Family Partnership, and in 2026 could cause us to lose external matching funds S We would work collaboratively with the separately elected officials in the Sheriff's Office and PA's Office to determine if they would propose alternative cuts to achieve the same savings. 7 that support this work, and cutting 1 Community Health Improvement staff, among other reductions related to data and evaluation services. ■ Potential elimination of the Climate Action Program in Public Works. While this is important work it is discretionary and would zero out GF resources that go to public works. This would eliminate the Climate Action Program manager who coordinates key climate priorities and programs as identified by the 2021 Whatcom County Climate Action Plan, working closely with County departments and external partners to ensure that the County is leading efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts. Halting this work also means eliminating staff support for the Climate Impact Advisory Committee. (See Appendix 3 for information provided by department leadership on the potential impacts of budget cuts in 2025-2026). 6. Refection of ASRs that would be included in the recommend option As noted previously, mandatory or critical ASRs would need to be absorbed within existing budgets and through the GF cuts. This would mean that proposals for modest inflationary increases, or in some cases new resources, could not proceed, including investments in new training resources provided through our Human Resources Division; additional policy staff in the Council office; funding for the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force; funding for the Racial Equity Commission; investments to support technology investments for the Assessor; investments in needed positions and technology in the County Clerk's office and Superior Court. See Appendix 2 for a list of GF ASRs that would be included in the recommendation option and would be rejected if the Council chooses this path. ASRs that represent mandatory cost increases would have to be absorbed within existing budgets, supported at least in part by the $7M of GF cuts. The Council could recommend making different or additional cuts to accommodate some of these ASRs. In addition to the above -mentioned uncommitted funding in the Community Priorities Fund, the Council has the authority to reconsider awards made out of the Community Priorities Fund for specific projects that have not yet been expended (e.g., Meridian School District Childcare project, etc.). This would mean reversing previous organizational commitments, award letters, and council policy decisions. 7. Cut Road Fund expenses by about $23.1M over the biennium, and reject most ASRS This would include: $2.8M of cuts in capital expenses, deferring projects to outward years, such as two resurfacing projects and reducing the small area paver work from $750K to $300K $4.6M of cuts in operational expenses, deferring maintenance, running programs at baseline levels, the major cuts included: o Cut out all pre -level for the biennium at a cost of$1.33M (Defers maintenance, shortens the life, and increases capital costs in the future as the activity aids in chip sealing, repairs, reinforces, and removes the bumpy uncomfortable ride) o Reduced dust control by 50% gravel roads, work would be limited to Berry production areas only (avoid loss of crop). This results in a cost reduction of $110K o Cut chip seal work by $1M annually Rejection of most ASRs, totaling $15.7M in cuts, the cuts include: o Making ER&R equity deficit catch-up payments for replacement vehicles between $750K-$1M annually until the Road Fund has caught up on their obligation. H. o Additional Pre -level work of $245K in 2025 and $625K in 2026, above the pre-cut levels. o Hiring an additional 5 Road Maintenance Workers and 2 Senior Road Maintenance Workers, which would cost $640K annually. o Implementing a modern geographic information systems centric enterprise asset management system, which would cost $1.69M in one-time cost during the biennium, and $300K in annual software maintenance costs ■ Limit after-hours storm response to straight -time shifts, rather than incur non -reimbursable overtime. ■ Reduced key core services; examples include: o Reducing chip -seal funding by $1M annually (7-year rotation has been deferred to an 11- year rotation, defers maintenance shortens the life, increases capital costs in the future) o Cut out all pre -level entirely (Defers maintenance shortens the life, increases capital costs in the future) o Reduced dust control by 50% gravel roads, limit to Berry production areas only (loss of crop) o May have to look at storm operations moving forward, and reduce the level of service on snow response in order to avoid overtime o Cancelled the procurement of Asset Management software — no gained efficiencies with or operations, loss of potential future savings (pays for itself) The Executive's Office is concerned about these impacts and wants to highlight our concerns, particularly, regarding furloughs or closure days from an organizational wide perspective. Furloughs or closure days amount to about a 6% pay cut for most County employees. This unduly impacts the 342 county employees who already make less than $75,000 per year and the additional 87 employees who would now make less than $75,000 per year, if furloughed. For an employee making $75,000 per year, a 6% pay cut means $375 less per month to spend on groceries, housing, or childcare. Furloughs, closures and/or layoffs also negatively impact recruitment and retention, hampers our ability to effectively deliver services (i.e., permitting, severe weather shelter), and puts us at risk of not fully utilizing available grant resources. We have further heard concern from Department Heads that in past rolling furlough and closure day environments, employees became overworked "covering" for those not on -site, contributing to burnout. In sum, though this option does not raise taxes now, it will still require the County to do so at some point in the future. It also harms community members through reduced public safety, longer permit timelines, reduced access to senior programming, reduced resources to the food bank, and other negatives impacts. The Executive does not recommend pursuing this pathway. 9 Appendix 1— Examples of Department Proposed Changes to the Unified Fee Schedule Health and Community Services Proposed Changes Health and Community Services requested Unified Fee Schedule increases for fees associated with Environmental Health programs. The Environmental Health programs are run on a cost recovery basis and the requested increases are necessary to keep up with inflation and Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increases. Examples of needed increases: Drinking Water Program This program is 96% personnel costs and in 2023 the program under collected by $22,300 to fully recover the administrative indirect for the program. The proposed fee increased to the Drinking Water Program would only help to close that gap by 26%. Currently the program is being inequitably subsidized by other health programs in the general fund.* Living Environment Program This program is 66% personnel costs and in 2023 the program under collected by $45,700 to fully recover the administrative indirect for the program. The proposed fee increased to the Drinking Water Program would only help to close that gap by 10%. Currently the program is being inequitably subsidized by other health programs in the general fund.* *This analysis does not account for the increased costs of ER&R and Administrative Cost Allocation. Parks and Recreation Proposed Changes The Parks Department's approach to UFS revisions for 2025 included considerations to: 1. Simplify fee structures for a. clarity and ease of understanding for the public b. improved efficiency for implementation c. eliminate unnecessary tiered fee structures 2. Addressing inflationary costs associated with utilities, goods and services, and staffing necessary to provide the services 3. Consideration to market rate for services provided by other municipalities, etc. 4. Maintain higher rates for non -county residents as compared to county resident rates which has been a long-standing county practice... ultimately, from an efficiency perspective, the Department would prefer a single rate that applies to all patrons. 5. Removal of fees for services not provided 6. Consider the range of adjustment between current and proposed rates; ensure that proposed adjustments do not present a significant, and generally cost prohibitive, increase that price patrons out of the market. Outcomes include: • A starting point of 10% increase for inflationary costs • Comparison of the inflation adjusted rate to market rates, with some rates being adjusted up or down based on market conditions. • Combining of Facility Rental and Refuse Removal Fees for each rental facility 10 • Elimination of separate rental rates and tiers for each type of water craft to a single Water Craft Rental rate based on rental time durations Impact to Parks patrons: Modest increase in rates that account for inflationary costs that are below market rates as compared to other municipalities and governmental service providers. Examples, under the proposed rate increases, include: • Washington State Parks charges between $27.00 and $37.00 per standard campsite per night, while a comparable campsite at Silver Lake Park is $25.00 per night for county residents and $30 for non -county residents. • Washington State Parks charges between $35 and $45 per night for partial utility campsites, while a comparable campsite at Silver Lake Park is $32 per night for county residents and $40 for non -county residents. • City of Bellingham vendor at Bloedel Donovan Park charges $25-$35 per hour for watercraft rental. Whatcom County proposed resident rate is $17.00 per hour. • City of Bellingham charges $500-$800 per day for indoor facility rentals. Whatcom County Parks indoor facility rentals range from $286 to $324 per day for county residents and $308 to $346 for non -county residents Planning and Development Services Changes In preparation for the 2025-26 Budget Submission, PDS Division Managers did an analysis of the comparable counties to ensure as we consider any fee increases that they are appropriate as compared to other jurisdictions. It has been several budget cycles since PDS has raised their fees and the result of the analysis showed the majority of our fees are currently lower than our comparable counties. Our PDS fee structure currently only covers 50-60% of costs, and a fee increase has been proposed to help bridge the gap on cost recovery and reduce the burden on the General Fund, though the proposed increases would not approach full cost recover but would be closer to a 60-65% cost recovery plan. Below are some basic examples of year-to-year cost comparisons —these estimates represent the "base" fees for applications and permits and do not encompass all the review fees that might be required to meet the scope of the project. Permit or Land Use Application Type 2023-24 2025-26 Hourly Rate (last hourly rate increase was 2019) 120.00 140.00 Building Permit (Building Permit & Plan Review Fees) Single Family Residence (2,752 Sq Feet) 4,967.26 5,438.76 Commercial Structure (new mini -storage unheated) 4,475.33 4,921.72 Mechanical or Plumbing Replacement -Base Fee 40.00 50.00 Manufactured Home(Double Wide on residential lot) 670.00 740.00 Detached Residential Structure (Ag Pole Barn 3,200 Sq Ft) 1,676.10 1,955.91 11 Natural Resource Base Application Fees Site Plan Review 420.00 650.00 Shoreline Exemption 300.00 450.00 Current Planning Base Fees SEPA Checklist 440.00 600.00 Short Plat 630.00 750.00 Administrative Use 1,440.00 2,000.00 Conditional Use 3,240.00 4,500.00 Lot of Record 460.00 560.00 Appendix 2 -GF ASRs to Include in Executive's Proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget ASRs related to the GF that are under final review for inclusion in the Executive's Proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget. Please note that as of 101712024 the Executive is still working with the AS -Finance Division to finalize costs and technical details; this list is subject to change prior to the Executive transmitting the final recommended biennial budget. Department Request Information 2025 2026 Assessor 7216 - Reclass - Appraiser III 7,375 7,711 Assessor 7217 - Reclass - Appraiser IV (JMS) Assessor 7218 - Reclass - Appraiser IV (JS) Assessor 7219 - Reclass- Appraiser IV (Downgrade from 8,005 9,920 4,425 4,425 (17,943) (17,943) Assessor Appraiser V) 7220 - Spatialest - online public information 75,840 79,632 Assessor 7221- Harris - PACS maintenance 13,000 13,000 Assessor 7222 - ESRI 101827 10,827 Assessor 7223 - Experian 10,827 10,827 Auditor 7094 - Position Reclass in Licensing division 4,388 4,158 Auditor 7107 - SKEP Program - Licensing 1,227 9,929 Auditor 7106 - SKEP Program - Recording 8,219 10,527 Auditor 7500 - Elimination of split position from general funds (38,492) (44,848) County Clerk 7067 - Office Supplies 13,300 13,850 County Clerk 7070 - Senior Deputy 151,782 156,697 County Clerk 7209 - County Clerk Dues, Travel, & Training 6,300 6,500 County Clerk 7232 - Increase Contracts for Conflict Counsel 200,000 250,000 County Clerk 7233 - Equipment Rental 5,000 6,000 County Clerk 7258 - Truancy/ Chins / ARY Counsel 50,000 51,500 County Clerk 7260 - Civil Contempt/Domestic Appointed Attorney 9,000 9,250 County Council County Council 7238 - Overtime for Charter Review, Comp Plan, BOE 13,000 7240 - Temporary Extra Help for Charter Review, Comp 13,000 Plan - 12 Department Request Information 2025 2026 County Council 7241- Travel - Other 5,000 5,000 County Council 7242 - Travel - District 4 (Stremler) 3,000 3,000 County Council 7243 -Travel - At -Large B (Scanlon) 3,000 3,000 County Council 7244 - Travel - District 5 (Elenbaas) 3,000 3,000 County Council 7245 - Travel - District 1 (Galloway) 3,000 3,000 County Council 7246 - Travel - District 2 (Donovan) 3,000 3,000 County Council 7247 - Travel - At Large A (Buchanan) 3,000 3,000 County Council 7248 - Travel - District 3 (Byrd) 3,000 3,000 County Council 7249 - Books, publications, and subscriptions 500 500 County Council 7250 - Advertising 3,000 3,000 County Council 7251- Hearing Examiner 6,000 14,000 County Council 7252 - Reclassification 10,571 14,972 County Council 7253 - Legislative Coordinator - Policy 102,465 106,054 County Council 7254 - IPRTF Communications & Outreach 25,000 - County Council 7255 - IPRTF - Advertising 10,000 15,000 County Council 7256 - Enhanced Security for evening meetings 14,000 14,000 County Council 7257 - BOE Per Diem and Temp Extra Help 30,000 30,000 County Executive 7455 - Government Representation 34,800 34,800 County Executive 7131- Base budget included incorrect wage amount 16,663 17,252 District Court 7035 - Jury Printing and Postage 20,000 20,000 District Court 7036 - Office Equipment/Maintenance 5,000 5,000 District Court 7038 - Jury Fees 15,000 15,000 District Court 7039 - Jury Meals and Refreshments 2,000 7040 - Interpreter Services - 7073 - Electronic Equipment Program 150,000 7151 - Therapeutic Court State Funded Expenses (69,692) 7319 - Cellebrite Premium 22,563 2,000 District Court District Court Probation - 150,000 District Court Probation - Health and Community Services 24,143 Health and Community 7320 - Professional Services for Investigations 12,000 Services Health and Community 7321- Ballistic Vest Replacement 34,800 Services Health and Community 7329 - Digital Forensics Infrastructure - Phase 1 150,000 Services Health and Community 7335 - H.S.I. Reimbursable OT - Services Health and Community 7337 - US DOJ DEA SLOT - Services Health and Community 7341- WTSC DRE Reimbursable OT - Services 12,000 20,400 - - - - 13 Department Request Information 2025 2026 Health and Community 7345 - WTSC - HVE Reimbursable OT - - Services Health and Community 7421- Reimbursable Overtime - Contracts - - Services - - Health and Community 7413 - FPHS CD&E Services 7347 - DOH PHEP Health and Community - - Services Health and Community 7411 - FPHS Communication - - Services 7387 - Community Health Reclass FPHS - - Health and Community Services Health and Community 7388 - Community Health labor pool companion - - Services Health and Community 7389 - DCYF Grant Budget Increase for NFP Program - - Services Health and Community 7390 - DID State Contract Increase-admin costs - - Services Health and Community 7391 - DID State Contract Increase -contractual services - - Services Health and Community 7392 - Vape Settlement Program Funding - - Services Health and Community 7393 - Marijuana Prevention Funding Grant - - Services Health and Community 7394 - NSASO Budgeted Expenditure Correction - - Services Health and Community 7414 - FPHS CH&HS - - Services Health and Community 7408 - Disposal Facilities Cost Maint 11500 1,500 Services Health and Community 7409 - Solid Waste Handling Facility Permit (9,500) (9,500) Services Reapplication Health and Community 7410 - Meth Investigation Fee (4,395) (4,395) Services Health and Community 7415 - FPHS Environmental Health - - Services - - Health and Community 7348 - Health Admin- Assistant Director Services - - Health and Community 7384 - HIA Data Needs Reclass Services Health and Community 7385 - HIA labor pool companion - - Services Health and Community 7395 - Public Health Infrastructure Grant - - Services 14 Department Request Information 2025 2026 Health and Community 7403 - EH indirect Companion (42,292) (88,341) Services Health and Community 7412 - FPHS Technology - - Services Health and Community 7494 - Health Admin- Assistant Director- Companion - - Services Juvenile Court Juvenile Court Non -Departmental 7081- Detention Staff Overtime 7090 - Detention Extra Help 7429 - Software Maintenance - Granicus 27,519 27,519 11,320 6,508 11,320 4,008 Non -Departmental 7430 - Whatcom Racial Equity Commission 100,000 - Non -Departmental 7432 - Employee Recognition 3,000 3,000 Non -Departmental 7434 - NW Clean Air Per Capita Assessment increase 16,413 17,000 Non -Departmental 7447 - Salary Commission 14,000 - Non -Departmental 7457 - Membership and Association dues 55,000 55,000 Non -Departmental 7458 - What -Comm Annual Increase 64,914 148,808 Non -Departmental 7464 - TFR for Non -Wage Items - Crim Justice Cost Center 14,100 6,900 Non -Departmental 7470 - Medical Examiner (261,330) (421,330) Non -Departmental 7493 - DV Commission - Increase continued for 25-26 30,000 30,000 Non -Departmental 7525 - Medical Examiner Staffing 255,537 266,139 Non -Departmental 7532 - Premium Pay & OT Increase for ME On -Call Staff 20,189 20,993 Non -Departmental 7501- Obligated Animal Control and Shelter Services Non -Departmental 7522 - Council of Governments Membership Increase Non -Departmental 7502 - Boundary Review Board Non -Departmental 7529 - Companion to Court Audio Visual Systems Project Non -Departmental 7531- Permit System Implementation Companion to 7198 G F 32,631 32,631 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 432,000 - 137,500 - Non -Departmental 7537 - TR&R Replacement Increase Companion to 7535 100,000 100,000 Non -Departmental 7505 - Companion to 7504 Jail Nursing Increase 3001000 - Non -Departmental 7506 - Companion to DEM Requests 7148 and 7149 33,500 33,500 Non -Departmental 7437 - Organizational Contingency 60,000 60,000 Parks & Recreation 7054 - Ongoing Costs From Positions Approved in 2024 8,925 8,925 Parks & Recreation 7055 - ERR Costs for Fleet Additions Approved in 2024 32,400 32,400 Parks & Recreation 7228 - Parks Trailer Additions 18,000 - Parks & Recreation 7236 - ERR Rates for 2025 Parks Trailer Additions 1,620 3,240 Parks & Recreation 7261- Park Facilities Extra Help Wage Increase 9,908 9,908 Parks & Recreation 7262 - EWRRC Building Maintenance 10,000 10,000 Parks & Recreation 7268 - Increase in Revenue and Expenditure Authority 3,711 (3,789) Parks & Recreation 7274 - Operating Cost Increases Approved in 2024 60,200 60,200 Parks & Recreation 7279 - EWRRC Contract Adjustment 50,000 51,500 15 Department Request Information 2025 2026 Parks & Recreation 7057 - Ongoing Software Costs Approved in 2024 6,000 6,000 Parks & Recreation 7237 - Admin Complex Utility Cost Increases 9,550 9,550 Parks & Recreation 7276 - Administrative Supv Position Reclassification - - Parks & Recreation 7239 - Bellingham Senior Center Parking Lot Cost Increase 126 130 Parks & Recreation 7264 - Senior Services Extra Help Rate Increase 729 729 Parks & Recreation 7265 - Senior Center Utilities & Repair & Maintenance 11,900 11,900 Parks & Recreation 7277 - Senior Centers Contract Adjustment 88,296 98,592 Planning & Development Services Planning & Development Services Planning & Development Services Planning & Development Services 7158 - Contingent Planning & Development Position - - 7161- Fire Inspector Operational Safety Gear 7,200 7157 - On Call Consultant Funding 75,000 7159 - Phase 2 Offsite Critical Area Buffer Mitigation 184,000 _ 7156 - 2025 Comp Plan Update Funding (50,000) 1,000 75,000 - Planning & Development Services - Prosecuting Attorney 7091- Realignment for Chris Quinn and Erik Sigmar 40,752 40,752 Prosecuting Attorney 7291- Prosecutor by Karpel Database Maintenance Fee 1,500 5,000 Prosecuting Attorney Public Defender 7496 - Bellingham Towers Leaase for DCS (Companion ASR) 7041- Additional Funding to Support 17 staff positions - - 68,663 69,163 Public Defender 7047 - Professional Services Supplemental 37,000 37,000 Public Defender 7049 - Contract Services for RAU Appeals 20,000 20,000 Public Defender 7050 - Transcripts for RAU Appeals 12,000 12,000 Public Defender 7051- Westlaw Contract Increase 3,480 3,584 Public Defender 7053 - Summer Law School Interns Extra Help 47,500 47,500 Public Defender 7060 - AXON Auto Transcribe Subscription 20,000 21,000 Public Defender 7061- Postage Cost Increase 3,000 3,000 Public Defender 7062 - Workers Comp costs for volunteers 1,000 1,000 Public Defender 7171- Interpreter Services 5,000 5,000 Public Defender 7476 - SPAR Grant Fund - - Public Defender 7092 - Position ID #100 Re -Alignment 13,509 13,423 Public Defender 7093 - Position ID #101 Realignment 12,399 12,314 Public Defender 7270 - Position ID 1065 SKEP Wages 4,019 3,890 Public Defender 7272 - Position ID #1090 SKEP wages 6,147 6,558 Public Defender 7269 - Position ID #165 Wage Increase for 2026 only - 21437 Public Defender 7271- Position ID #1050 SKEP wages 6,147 6,558 Sheriff 7309 - Spillman Flex Maintenance 2025-2026 4,513 4,513 Sheriff 7310 - Training Tracker Software - Sheriff 4,200 4,200 16 Department Request Information 2025 2026 Sheriff 7318 - Ammunition - Duty and Training 5,000 5,000 Sheriff 7322 - EVOC Vehicle Repairs 5,000 5,000 Superior Court 7063 - Commissioner Pro Tems 50,000 50,000 Superior Court 7098 - Office Equipment and Training 4,600 4,650 Superior Court 7175 - Upgrade Court Audio Visual Systems (Ongoing) 5,000 5,000 Superior Court 7280 - Interpreters 501000 50,000 Superior Court 7281- Universal Guardianship Act 201000 30,000 Superior Court 7282 - Family Law Mediation Services 20,000 20,000 Superior Court 7283 - Supervised Visitation 20,000 20,000 Superior Court 7284 - Set Up Costs- Superior Court Services Manager 5,000 - Superior Court 7285 - Superior Court Services Manager 142,215 142,480 Superior Court 7288 - FJCIP Amended 7286 - Pro Tern Commissioner Coverage and Copier Rental 7101- Axiom Mobile Armored Car Service 7102 - Postage Increase - - Superior Court 35,668 35,668 Treasurer 11000 1,000 Treasurer 17,450 20,000 Treasurer 7103 - Harris Govern Software Maintenance 26,978 31,978 Treasurer 7111- Senior Investment Officer - Current Expense (307,626) (407,630) Treasurer 7129 - SymPro Debt module software maintenance 1,050 1,200 Treasurer 7143 - Spread Sheet Server 2,180 2,180 WSU Extension 7162 - Building Lease Line Item Increase 4,800 6,500 WSU Extension 7164 - Telephone/Internet Cost Increase 970 970 WSU Extension 7211- Intergovernmental Professional Services 8,221 5,645 WSU Extension 7212 - Sustainable Landscaping Outreach Support - - WSU Extension 7213 - Community Horticulture Program Support - - WSU Extension 7214 - Strengthening Families Program Support - - Appendix 3 - Feedback from Departments about impact of GF Cuts In September, the Executive asked all departments and separately elected offices to describe what the impact of a 3-5% GF reduction would in their respective departments. Below is what we heard from the departments and separately elected offices that would be impacted by the alternative, not recommended, option described in this memo: District Court and Probation 1. Elimination of (or significant reduction in) the electronic equipment program (alcohol monitoring), current budget of $150,000. This program is run in partnership with WC Jail Alternatives. The program allows pre and post -conviction (high -risk) individuals, who may otherwise be held in custody, the ability to remain out of custody while also being held accountable for their sobriety. These devices monitor any alcohol consumption 24 hours a 17 day. Any violation is promptly brought before a Judicial Officer. Currently between 35- 40 individuals are on the program at any given time. 2. Freezing or eliminating a vacant PO position (DCP). With a reduction in staff, our focus would have to be directed towards managing oversized caseloads. Doing so would lead to elimination of internal programing such as MRT (Moral Reconation Therapy), DVMRT and Anger Management. These programs are run internally, by trained Probation Officers, to fill resource gaps within our community. Further, cuts to DVMRT would seriously impact our Family Justice Calendar. This calendar is a court focused review calendar for higher risk DV offenders. This calendar has been effective in reducing domestic violence and assisting with family unification and stability. Cuts to this program would not only affect the offender but potentially families who benefit from seeing defendants complete DV treatment and are held accountable. 3. Freezing or eliminating a vacant Court Clerk position (DC). Like DCP, District Court's budget is personnel heavy, leaving very little options other than eliminating FTE(s). a. District Court has seen a 80% increase in trials post-Covid as compared with the same time period pre-Covid. For example, this year we're expecting to hear around 50 trials. Should we experience cuts with personnel or need to reduce pro tem expenditures, I expect we would have to consider offering only one trial per week versus two. Reducing trials is a serious impact to individuals access to justice. b. Recently, we have managed to catch up on the civil processing backlog. The civil workload has increased and has continued to become much more complicated due to legislative changes. Protection orders have increased and the processing time is more than one person can manage. Without the appropriate staffing levels needed, we will not be able to complete work processing timely and within legal requirements. c. We also have many projects the court has been working on which benefit multiple departments. Those projects include, newly formed warrant quash days, proactive steps in vacating Blake cases, preparing for WA states new case management system (JIS replacement), implementing a debit cards system to pay jurors and installing a new Judgement and Sentence. Without proper staffing levels we will not be able to manage the associate workload. Health & Community Services 2025: cut additional $460,000 • 1 Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) nurse, reducing caseload to at -risk families 0 1 nurse working with nursing homes and long-term care facilities when they have disease outbreaks • 1 accounting clerk, slowing processing of payment to contractors • 1 data analyst, which would halt our ability to update the overdose dashboards and GRACE/LEAD outcome data 2026: 18 • 1 NPF nurses, which may result in losing our match from the NFP program (requires 50% local match) • 1 Community Health Improvement staff, who facilitates the CHIP and Healthy Whatcom • 2 clerks, which would force reduced hours of service to the public • 1 nurse in Tuberculosis program, reducing our ability to curtail spread of disease Parks and Recreation The potential cuts would be very detrimental to service delivery in part due to historical lack of adequate investment in Parks' general fund — a situation that has resulted in Parks operating at the margins of effective service delivery today. That said, the Department's response to the proposed budget reduction prioritizes preserving existing FTEs, ensuring public health and safety, supporting revenue -generating activities, maintaining long-term facility and grounds health, and delivering customer service that aligns with available funding. The level of proposed reduction forces difficult choices to safeguard public health and safety, and attempting to support critical revenue -generating activities. However, maintaining the long- term health of facilities and grounds will be severely compromised, and customer service will be significantly reduced to reflect the diminished resources. These cuts will create dire challenges in sustaining core operations. A reduction at the proposed level would result in: Reduction in Seasonal Extra Help staffing by 18-23 positions, affecting parks maintenance, operations, and administration. These positions are essential for maintaining grounds, facilities, concessions, and customer service. Impacts include: o Less frequent and lower -quality cleaning of restrooms, campsites, and facilities, leading to unsanitary conditions. o A 75% reduction in grounds maintenance, with minimal or no upkeep in low development and undeveloped areas. o Limited capacity to support revenue -generating activities, causing an estimated loss of revenue of $83,000. o An anticipated increase in customer dissatisfaction related to reduced level of service. o Reduction in services at Plantation Indoor Range. ■ Reassignment of maintenance staff to regions, in support of public facing operations, leading to: o A 70%-80% reduction in the ability to handle routine and on -demand maintenance during peak season, increasing deferred maintenance. o Reduced capacity to address public health and safety repairs. o Reduced maintenance efforts at Senior Services facilities. ■ Holding the Land Management Supervisor position open, hindering the department's ability to: o Implement the Lake Whatcom Forest Management Plan process. 19 o Oversee 79 miles of trail maintenance and manage new trail construction. o Address unsanctioned trails on park lands. Planning and Development Services ■ PDS would remind Council that our FTE staffing levels (funded by the GF) are almost the same as the department had in the year 2000—almost a quarter century ago. We have stayed lean over the years while seeing significant increases in statutory obligations, development activity and public expectations of increased levels of service. ■ Any reduction in funding —or if basic ASR's for SB 5290 permit fee refund opt -out options are not granted —would require a reduction in our core customer services. At a minimum, in an effort to meet the new SB 5290 permitting timelines it would be necessary for PDS to reduce open hours and change our non -fee based customer service structure to very brief interactions and anything requiring more staff time would need to be by appointment. This would reduce the ability to answer the hundreds of questions from the public and development community (in person walk-ins, telephone and email) that we manage on a weekly basis in a timely manner. It would require us to severely restrict our open hours to reduce the public interaction load on staff and preserve that time for staff to focus on permit reviews to meet the new more stringent state -mandated timelines for issuing final permit decisions starting January 1, 2025. ■ The only feasible way for PDS to meet an overall budget cut of 3-5% would be to lay off staff positions. This would lead to the same problem of a reduction in services. Our budget just does not have a great deal of non -essential funding. A 3% reduction in an $8M dollar budget is $240,000 which is a minimum to 2 staff positions, possibly 3, if funds cannot be taken from other line items. A 5% reduction would be $400,000 and equate to 4 staff positions. To even potentially approach offsetting the loss of GF revenue needed to maintain current staffing levels, PDS would have to move to a much higher cost recovery model and significantly increase fees to cover statutory obligations. That approach would result in further exacerbating the affordable housing challenges the county faces and likely lead to increased demand for code enforcement if more people elect to do development work without permits. ■ If we have to reduce our vehicle inventory; it would limit staff's ability to manage field work and field inspections or building inspections might have to be delayed as we manage vehicle availability. Prosecuting Attorney's Office 1. Staffing Reductions and Case Backlog: With a 3-5% reduction, we would likely need to consider reducing our prosecuting attorney and support staff positions. This would significantly slow down the processing of criminal and civil cases, leading to a growing backlog that could delay trials, extend pretrial detention, and prolong civil case resolutions. The public, victims, and defendants would experience longer wait times for justice, which could erode community confidence in the judicial system. 20 2. Service Reduction and Operational Efficiency: Reduced staffing and resources would severely limit our ability to provide critical services such as victim advocacy, diversion programs, and specialty court support. We would need to scale back services aimed at crime prevention and rehabilitation, which are essential to reducing recidivism and supporting community safety. Additionally, reduced capacity would strain our office's operational efficiency, leading to less time for thorough case preparation and investigation. 3. Community and Political Impacts: Decreased capacity to prosecute cases, particularly serious offenses like violent crime, domestic violence, and drug -related cases, would pose direct risks to community safety. The public may lose confidence in the County's ability to effectively address these critical issues. Furthermore, these reductions could have broader political implications, as crime and public safety are closely watched by community stakeholders and elected officials. 4. Compliance and Legal Risks: Reduced capacity would directly impact our civil division and affect our ability to provide timely legal counsel to other County departments. This could increase the County's exposure to liability, compliance failures, and costly litigation, especially in relation to land use, employment law, and contract management. Additionally, our office would struggle to meet public records requests, further compounding compliance risks. 5. Collaboration with Law Enforcement and Other Agencies: Cuts in our budget would inevitably strain our collaboration with law enforcement agencies and other County departments. Slower case processing times and reduced prosecutorial support would hinder the ability of law enforcement to effectively address and resolve cases, particularly in areas such as drug enforcement, domestic violence, and mental health - related incidents. This could lead to frustration among partner agencies and diminished overall effectiveness in serving the community. These impacts would have both immediate and long-term consequences for the Prosecutor's Office and the broader justice system. We recognize the complexity of the decisions ahead and sincerely appreciate the thoughtful time and effort being dedicated to addressing them. Should you, the Executive, or the Council need further information or clarification, we are available for to meet and discuss further. Public Works: General Fund - Public Works has one General funded program, Climate Action ■ The total amount of GF allocated to Climate Action is $247,119, o the climate action special projects manager position makes up $147,119, leaving $100,000 of GF to make the reduction from. The impact of a 3-5% reduction will reduce opportunities for scoping projects and the ability to leverage state and federal grant opportunities. Specifically, it would result in the elimination of up to two additional scoped projects from consideration in each climate action work plan for 2025 and 2026. 21 Sheriff's Office A 3% to 5% yearly reduction in our budget would significantly impact the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office's operations and service deliverables. The Sheriff's Office has been understaffed in our Patrol Division for many years. In fact, in general, Washington state has the lowest number of law enforcement per capita of any state. In addition, we have vacancies in Corrections that should be filled and not be impacted by a hiring freeze or budget reduction. These are critical positions that are needed to effectively and efficiently provide services to detainees per Washington state laws. Lastly, our support staff positions are lean, and losing even one staff member would be a detriment to our operations. This list is a snapshot of a budget reduction's potential effects on the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office and the community. Bureau of Corrections: ■ Staffing/Overtime Reductions: The Corrections Bureau relies heavily on personnel, and a budget cut might necessitate reducing staff through layoffs, furloughs, or cutting overtime. This would strain the remaining staff, increasing workloads, potentially leading to safety risks, decreased morale, and higher staff turnover ■ Reduced Inmate Services: Programs such as mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, educational courses, or vocational training would be scaled back or eliminated. This should not be an option. ■ Facility Maintenance and Upgrades: Maintenance of this aging facility and equipment should not be delayed. Delaying maintenance increases the risk of failures in security systems, plumbing, or HVAC systems, which could create unsafe or unsanitary conditions and increase liability risks. ■ Delayed Medical and Health Services: Medical services for detainees could be reduced or delayed, leading to serious health issues or complaints. Lack of adequate medical care would likely result in legal challenges and potential lawsuits. ■ Security Compromises: Budget reductions would affect security measures like surveillance upgrades, access control systems, or emergency preparedness. This could increase the risk of security breaches, including escape attempts or internal incidents. Patrol Division: ■ We currently have minimal discretionary funding for the Sheriff's Office Patrol Division. The costs of our supplies (ammunition, training equipment, etc.) have increased over the last two years. The training requirements for law enforcement have continued to rise, and unfunded mandates require more training for our entire agency. We have seen an increase in the amount of calls for service requiring multiple deputies. A reduction in the budget will reduce the training necessary for our deputies and the ability to acquire the equipment needed to effectively, efficiently, and safely perform law enforcement duties. This could harm community expectations and increase the risk of injury to deputies or community members, thus increasing risk and liability. 22 Investigation and Civil Division: ■ A budget decrease will severely hinder the WCSO's ability to continue the technical and forensic capabilities that we are implementing. WCSO purchased Cellebrite Premium, which allowed detectives to extract data from cell phones and computers for critical investigations. Before this recent implementation, we had to rely on other law enforcement agencies to do this work. However, those agencies are inundated with their caseloads and will no longer perform those investigative services for different agencies. If we cannot extract data, the prosecutor's office will face challenges with discovery, exculpatory evidence arguments, and speedy trial. Most serious felonies often include someone possessing an electronic device such as a smartphone, using a vehicle, or utilizing some other technology (computers) from which law enforcement can now extract data. Phones, for example, don't just make calls and text. A budget decrease means a new program, such as Cellebrite Premium, will be lost with new licensing fees coming in 2025. At the beginning of the year, we assigned some of our detectives to investigate 57 cold cases involving unsolved homicides, missing people, and unknown remains as far back as 1970. A budget decrease would limit the ability to continue funding for private lab use and genealogy toward these archived cases. Of those 57 cases, detectives recently submitted quotes from the existing budget for body exhumation, genealogy, and private lab work (DNA) on three separate investigations. In 2025, detectives planned to continue working within budgetary measures to continue this work and two other active WCSO investigations. We are charged with the responsibility to solve these crimes and advocate for the victims and their families, in addition to identifying unknown remains or missing people from Whatcom County; a budget decrease will stall that process. Superior Court Budget cuts and/or absorption of costs for 2025/2026 would significantly impact access to justice and would pose a significant hindrance to the provision of mandated services. The court is bursting at the seams in its effort to ensure access and maintain services with current staffing and budget. For context, the volume of cases have increased substantially since the last budget cycle. Most of the courts costs are mandatory. For example, GAL's, Interpreters, Attorneys, probation services, detention. The only place to reduce costs that are not mandatory would be administrative staff (all of whom support ensuring mandatory functions are maintained) or programs such as Pre Trial Services, Recovery Court or support for Supervised Visitation. Here are some examples of the potential impacts if the budget were reduced and we were to have to absorb any new costs: Reduction in funding for Supervised Visitation (contracted out to Dispute Resolution Center) would mean parents whom the court has determined require a neutral visit supervisor to ensure child safety who are not able to pay for this service would not have 23 visitation with their child. Currently WDRC is the only local agency that provides supervised visitation services at no cost. Participants are able to visit one hour per week with their child(ren) at no cost. There is not currently a waiting list (and the court is not the only funding source) but at the current volume needed by the community, they are not able to offer more than one visit per week. Reduction in this service would negatively impact parent -child relationships. If we reduce funding directed to alternative dispositions, such as Recovery Court, this could mean more jail time for individuals or lack of engagement in services to address SUD needs. Continued use could result in future criminal activity, impacts on children (such as DCYF intervention), relapse risk, community safety and individual safety concerns and continued barriers to housing. Continued use could result in increased use of EMS services or hospital services. It would also be in opposition to current Incarceration Prevention Task Force Goals. - Any reduction in current staffing numbers with Juvenile Court would result in children not having representation from a Title 13 GAL in dependency proceedings, the inability to provide probation supervision services as required within caseload standards (lack of meaningful engagement, support and services aimed at rehabilitation and reducing recidivism) , reduction in support/services for the in excess of 325 truancy youth and families working with probation to connect with community services and increase school attendance or create wait times for youth seeking Child in Need of Services Petitions (temporary out of home placement to allow youth and parent to work through challenges at home) or wait times for parents seeing At Risk Youth Petitions. At the current levels, staff members have full caseloads. There would also be an impact on the ability of Juvenile Court to support alternative disposition programs, detention alternatives and diversion. Early intervention, addressing needs and skill building is a key factor in reducing incarceration and substance use in adulthood. Currently, there is a significant lack of services available in the community for our teenage population. If we were to reduce costs associated with Pre Trial Services, it would mean a reduction in staffing. Currently the office is staffed by two individuals. A reduction of staffing would have a negative impact on connecting adults to services and would mean a cap on the number of individuals who could be placed on Pre Trial. This would be in opposition to the goal to reduce incarceration (which is a much greater expense). Depending on how the limits were set, it could also inadvertently create additional racial disparities, despite the efforts to decrease them through the use of the PSA/Pre Trial Services. Reduction in administrative staff would impact the daily functioning of the court, such as impacting the courts ability to ensure interpreters are at hearings (RCW 2.43.090), ability to ensure invoices for services such as interpretation or court visitors which are public expenses are paid timely (thus also impacting the willingness for individuals to be on registries/interpreter lists), supporting the community in navigating the court process, juvenile sealing, juvenile warrants, juvenile case processing, ensuring up to date information is available to the public, coordination of pro tems etc. 24 With the changes in laws surrounding protection orders, the court has added three overflow calendars per week. These are staffed by pro tem commissioners as Superior Court is at the maximum number of Constitutional Commissioners allowable. Cutting funding to pay for pro tems would have a negative impact on access to justice. It would also increase court costs as it would necessitate more continuances. every continuance means (at minimum) a clerk, judge, judicial assistant, attorney, court reporter etc. will be required at a subsequent hearing. Judicial Officers are working to cover calendars as they are able, but this volume is in addition to all the rest of the cases already being heard by judicial officers. If we moved judicial officers off of other calendars, it would negatively impact the resolution of cases. Legislative changes have a profound impact on the court. It is unknown what new legislative changes will increase court costs. These are outside the courts control. Most recently, changes in protection orders have increased costs, as have guardianships. RCW's mandate timeliness of court and the requirements such as Court Visitors by which the court must abide. Most of these changes do not come with funds to support increased court costs. If asked to absorb all future costs for the next two years, this is the wild card. We don't know what legislative changes will mean for the court. The two examples above resulted in a significant increase in costs for the court. 25 File ID: AB2024-341 File Created: 05/15/2024 Department: Council Office Assigned to: Council (Special) Agenda Date: 06/11/2024 Whatcom County Agenda Bill Master Report File Number: AB2024-341 Version: 1 Entered by: DBrown@co.whatcom.wa.us File Type: Discussion Primary Contact Email: DBrown@co.whatcom.wa.us TITLE FOR AGENDA ITEM: COUNTY COURTHOUSE 311 Grand Avenue, Ste #105 Bellingham, WA 98225-4038 (360)778-5010 Status: Discussed and Motion(s) Approved Final Action: 06/11/2024 Enactment #: Discussion and approval of Council Office budget items to include as Additional Services Requests (ASRs) with the department's proposed 2025-2026 biennial budget SUMMARY STATEMENT OR LEGAL NOTICE LANGUAGE: Councilmembers and Council Office staff will discuss ideas for new or enhanced services to include with the departments proposed 2025-2026 biennial budget HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE FILE Date: Acting Body: Action: 05/21/2024 Council (Special) DISCUSSED 06/04/2024 Council Committee of the Whole NOT ACTED UPON 06/11/2024 Council (Special) DISCUSSED AND MOTION(S) APPROVED Sent To: Attachments: 2023-24 Budget Preparation Instructions (provided for reference), Proposals Submitted as of 5.20.2024, Proposals Submitted as of 5.20.2024 (v2) Whatcom County Page 1 Printed on 4/23/2025 Whatcom County 2023-2024 Budget Preparation Instructions June 29, 2022 Table of Contents I. Introduction...................................................................................................................................1 ContactInformation..............................................................................................................................................................................................................1 BudgetPreparation Time Table........................................................................................................................................................................................1 2023-2024 Specific Budget Instructions..................................................................................2 BudgetInstructions to Departments..............................................................................................................................................................................2 BaseBudget Limits.................................................................................................................................................................................................................2 Adjusting Your Base Budget for Other Changes..............................................................................................................................................2 Revenues...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 GrantGuidelines..........................................................................................................................................................................................................3 III. General Instructions.....................................................................................................................3 Deadline.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 BudgetSubmission................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 Budget Preparation Assistant (BPA) Data Entry...............................................................................................................................................3 Admin/Budget Console Data Entry.......................................................................................................................................................................3 PDF- Budget Submission.........................................................................................................................................................................................4 DepartmentHead Approval Required.................................................................................................................................................................4 ER&R Allocations..........................................................................................................................................................................................................4 PhoneAllocations.......................................................................................................................................................................................................4 Additional Computer Hardware & Software......................................................................................................................................................4 Technology Replacement & Revolving Fund....................................................................................................................................................4 Volunteers......................................................................................................................................................................................................................4 Obtaining New Account Numbers or Cost Centers........................................................................................................................................4 CostCenter Budget Eliminations...........................................................................................................................................................................5 IV. BPA...................................................................................................................................................5 1. Mission Statement......................................................................................................................................................................................................5 2. Additional Service Requests (ASR)........................................................................................................................................................................5 ImportantASR Guidelines........................................................................................................................................................................................5 ASRTypes.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................6 ASRForm Components.............................................................................................................................................................................................6 ASRForm Text Fields..................................................................................................................................................................................................6 3. Inventory of Services..................................................................................................................................................................................................7 Costsand Funding......................................................................................................................................................................................................7 ServicePriorities...........................................................................................................................................................................................................8 4. Fund Balance Analysis...............................................................................................................................................................................................8 5-6. 2023 and 2024 Personnel Step Dates..................................................................................................................................................................8 7-8. 2023 and 2024 Personnel Cost Summaries........................................................................................................................................................8 9. Unified Fee Schedule.................................................................................................................................................................................................8 10. Budget Submission Checklist..................................................................................................................................................................................9 V. Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry.................................................................................9 Revenues..................................................................................................... What to Include in Your Revenue Explanation .............................. Expenditures.............................................................................................. What to Include in Your Expenditure Explanation ....................... Use the Provided Expenditure Amounts ......................................... Interfund Transactions........................................................................... ObjectAccounts....................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................ 9 ............................................................................................................................ 9 ......................................................................................................................... 10 ......................................................................................................................... 10 ......................................................................................................................... 10 ......................................................................................................................... 10 ......................................................................................................................... 10 Page VI. Department Organization....................................................................................................... 15 Appendices A. Salary Matrices.................................................................................................................... 16 B. Personnel Benefits.............................................................................................................. 17 C. Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry Instructions ................................................. 19 D. Printing From BPA.............................................................................................................. 25 E. ASR Examples...................................................................................................................... 27 F. Narrative Examples............................................................................................................ 31 G. Budget Policies.................................................................................................................... 33 Page H I. Introduction Whatcom County's budget document serves a number of purposes. Once adopted, the budget will be distributed to a diverse audience: our organization, other government entities, and the public. Financial summaries and budget appropriation amounts are vital components of this document, but they are only part of its overall function. Our budget document serves as a communications device, a policy document, a financial plan, and an operations guide. To be all of these things, the inclusion of clear, up-to-date information about Whatcom County government and its operations is essential. Our policies, our long term and short- term goals, the strategies we employ, as well as basic information about the many services we provide, are all important elements of this document. Departments write a large portion of the information that will be presented in the budget. These instructions are provided to assist departmental personnel in assembling their contributions in a format that allows for efficient integration into the Whatcom County 2023-2024 Budget. It is our goal to provide a concise, meaningful budget document. Contact Information If you have any questions regarding the 2023-2024 Budget or need help preparing your submission, please call the following Administrative Services (AS) Finance staff: General Questions, Budget Process, Revenue Projections, Grants, User Assistance Budget Software (BPA) General Questions, Installation, Profile Codes Budget Software (Admin/ Budget Console) General Questions Installation or Technical Difficulties Budget Preparation Time Table Marianne Caldwell...........................................(5329) Or ........... Brad Bennett ................. (5325) or (360-739-9160} Jeff Klingensmith.............................................(5333) Or ........... Marianne Caldwell ........................................... (5329) Or ........... Brad Bennett ................. (5325) or (360-739-9160) Marianne Caldwell...........................................(5329) Or ........... Brad Bennett ................. (5325) or (360-739-9160) IT Help Desk.......................................................(5230) Release of 2023-2024 Budget Request Instructions...................................................................................................Wednesday, June 29 Budget Instruction Presentation/ Training.........................................................................................................................Thursday, June 30 Virtual meeting via Zoom, link emailed separately 10:00 AM — 11:30 AM Department Budget Requests due to AS Finance.................................................................................................... Wednesday, August 3 Except: Sheriff, Health, and Public Works Budget Requests, which are due to AS Finance ............ Wednesday, August 10 Department Meetings with Executive Office/ Finance........................................................................... August 17 thru September 16 Executive's Budget Delivered to Council....................................................................................................................... Tuesday, October 18 Council Budget Hearings..................................................................................................................................October 19 thru November 22 Adoption of the 2023-2024 Budget by the County Council...............................................................................Tuesday, November 22 Page 1 11.2023-2024 Specific Budget Instructions Budget Instructions to Departments Thank you in advance for the time and careful planning you will be incorporating into your department's 2023-2024 budget submission. The trying times we live in continue to present new challenges. This biennium, inflation and the prospect of a slowing economy must be addressed, in addition to continuing pandemic and flood recovery efforts. We will be refining our projections over the next three months. We are hopeful we will have some ability to address increased operating costs for existing services; however, we do not anticipate having capacity to expand services. Please assess your existing budget carefully and reallocate your existing budget to address your department's changing needs. If you do need to request additional funding due to inflation, explain in your request what actions you have taken to control costs (e.g. decrease fuel consumption strategies) and provide information supporting the calculation of increased cost. INVENTORY OF SERVICES The last three years have been a period of unprecedented change. Please review your inventory of services to make sure they are current and fully reflect the services your department provides. Please update them for 1) changes you have made to existing services 2) new services you have added 3) services you have eliminated 4) services you provide that you have not previously documented. AMERI CAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA) FUNDING Positions added to address the criminal justice back log, Grant Compliance Specialist and Grants Manager will be carried forward into the 2023-2024 biennium. If additional funding is needed to support these positions please prepare an additional service request documenting these needs. Request projects utilizing ARPA funding for childcare or low-income housing as ASR's. Include references in the ASR to document how the project complies with the ARPA final rule. Base Budget Limits AS -Finance will calculate your department's base budget. This information will be emailed to you separately. The base budget equals your 2022 budget adopted by council less one-time ASRs (Additional Service Requests) and adjustments for changes in personnel costs. Personnel costs include step adjustments for the next biennium. The base budget DOES NOT include 2021-2022 budget supplementals or mid -biennium adjustments other than ongoing positions added during the period. Items added by supplemental marked as ongoing will have to be re -requested by ASR. Continue to use the 2022 current expense, administrative cost, tort, ER&R, and building maintenance fee allocations currently in JD Edwards. Finance will adjust those figures when the Admin Services and other budgets are finalized. Approved ASRs (Additional Service Requests) will be entered by Finance. Departments are encouraged to find creative ways to operate more efficiently. Departments may move resources between budget lines as they see fit, with the exception of no amounts should be moved from current expense, admin, tort, building maintenance fee, ER&R, or interfund fuel line items. ADJUSTING YOUR BASE BUDGET FOR OTHER CHANGES Do NOT include any new revenues in your base budget if the revenues are contingent on receiving additional expenditure authority. You will need to create an ASR for budgeting revenues that are contingent on obtaining additional expenditure authority. If there will be a decrease in grant funding, you must decrease the expenditures in your base budget accordingly. In the event your department discontinues or has decreased funding in fee for service activities, you must reduce your base budget for both the service revenue and any cost of providing the service, Page 2 including personnel costs. Revenues County government policy states that departments should "Structure fees and negotiate grants to recover the total cost, including administrative overhead, of the associated service." See "Setting Fees for County Services" policy, Appendix G. GRANT GUIDELINES We account for grants in unique cost centers. If two or more grants are used to fund the same project, all grants may be accounted for in the same cost center. Request a new cost center from Kristin Fuchs for those grants that need one. Only include in your budget submission grants for which you have signed contracts. The exceptions to this rule are: flood project -based grants, Consolidated Health, Consolidated Juvenile, and Support Enforcement grants.To obtain an additional exception to this rule, contact Brad Bennett or Marianne Caldwell in AS -Finance. All other grants require ASRs. In addition, you need to submit an ASRfor additional expenditure authority if you have an increase in grant funding (except for the specific grants listed above) or if a grant requires additional county matching funds. If there is a decrease in a grant's funding, you must decrease your expenditures accordingly, including personnel costs. For grants not meeting the criteria for biennial budget submission, use the supplemental budget process instead. In addition, review the "Accounting for Grants and Restricted Revenues" policy attached. . General Instructions Deadline Completed budget request submissions are due to AS -Finance by the end of the day, Wednesday, August 3, with the exception of Sheriff, Health, and Public Works, which are due on Wednesday, August 10. Budget Submission There are three main elements to your budget submission. They are: 1) BPA data entry, 2) entry of budget amount and narratives through the Admin/ Budget Console, and 3) electronic pdf copy. All three are required to complete your budget submission. BUDGET PREPARATION ASSISTANT (BPA) DATA ENTRY: BPA is a custom Access application. It provides a push button menu to access a variety of essential budget tools. BPA collects department budget data into a central database and gives you printed copies of this information for partofyour pdfsubmission. BPAwill be availableThursday, June 30, afterthe budget instruction presentation. To install BPA on your machine, go to https://wa-whatcomcountyintranet.civicplus.com/1147/ Budget -Preparation -Tools and follow the instructions under Budget Preparation Assistant Software (BPA). New users should contact Jeff Klingensmith for password and login information. Contact Marianne Caldwell if you have questions regarding using BPA. ADMIN/BUDGET CONSOLE DATA ENTRY: You use the Admin/ Budget Console to enter budget amounts and narratives into our accounting system (JDE). See Appendix C for instructions. Contact Marianne Caldwell if you have questions regarding using the Admin/ Budget Console. Page 3 PDF -BUDGET SUBMISSION: PDF budget submissions are required from every department. ASRs (either in xps or pdf format), JDE budget reports, Unified Fee Schedule (UFS) changes, updated organization chart and a completed budget checklist signed by the department head combine to make up your departmental budget submission. Email those submissions to Marianne Caldwell in AS Finance by your budget due date. Mission statements, inventory of services, and fund balance information will be downloaded out of BPA by AS Finance separately - no need for departments to pdf (or xps) and turn in. Special instructions for how to print out of BPA are attached as Appendix D. DEPARTMENT HEAD APPROVAL REQUIRED Though staff may prepare many elements of departmental budgets, the Department Head must review, and document his or her approval by signing the department's budget submission prior to turning it in to AS - Finance. Important Note: Document size limitations and other considerations may necessitate some administrative editing of departments'submitted materials. In cases where substantial editing is necessary, the administration will provide affected departments an opportunity to review and refine their section prior to publication. Miscellaneous Budget Issues ER&R ALLOCATIONS Fuel and regular monthly vehicle rental rates are charged separately. Base budgets from 2022 are carried forward to the new biennium. Fuel is charged directly based on actual usage. The interfund equipment rental account is charged for the regular monthly maintenance and replacement costs. If you need additional budget authority for fuel, you will need to do a cost maintenance ASR. PHONE ALLOCATIONS Common charges are allocated based on number of extensions. ADDITIONAL COMPUTER HARDWARE & SOFTWARE All computer hardware and software that do not replace existing systems must be requested through an ASR. TECHNOLOGY REPLACEMENT & REVOLVING FUND Technology Replacement & Revolving funds will only be used to replace existing hardware, software, and computer peripherals that are obsolete or failing. Do NOT submit an ASR for equipment that will be funded through TR&R. If you have failing equipment, contact Perry Rice, Information Technology Manager, with details. Perry will coordinate with Finance concerning the necessary budget for such replacements. VOLUNTEERS You need to add any volunteer hours provided by volunteers, times the applicable rate to the Worker's Compensation calculation provided on your personnel cost summary. The county is liable for any on-the-job accidents by volunteers. We need to continue to reserve monies for this liability expense. OBTAINING NEW ACCOUNT NUMBERS OR COST CENTERS If you need a new cost center or account number, call Kristin Fuchs. She will set it up for you in the accounting system. There is also a cost center in BPA called "-NEW-" which you may use as a placeholder in lieu of a new cost center number for use with ASRs. Page 4 COST CENTER BUDGET ELIMINATIONS If you have a cost center from 2022 that will not be used in 2023, it is important that you remove any ongoing budget amounts from the 2023 and 2024 cost center. Your budget limits will also need to be adjusted for the removal of any corresponding expense budget so contact Marianne Caldwell (5329) if you are eliminating any cost centers. IV. BPA Contact Jeff Klingensmith if you have questions regarding installing or signing on to BPA. The following elements are listed in BPA's menu item order. 1. Mission Statement Last year's mission statement is stored in BPA. Review and amend it if necessary, so that it clearly states what your department's purpose is. Content: A good mission statement should answer the question, "Who are we, what do we do, and who do we do it for?" Your mission statement should also outline how your department accomplishes its purpose. It should answer the question, "What does this department do?" Be sure that your mission statement is written in plain English. Space: In general, your mission statement should be simple, direct, and no more than one line long. If your department has multiple divisions that have diverse services, it is acceptable to provide a brief mission statement for each division, or one statement that covers all divisions. 2. Additional Service Requests (ASR) Only submit ASRs to increase levels of service that are covered by increased revenues from grants or other sources. Any other ASRs, other than cost maintenance ASRs, that will increase costs must be absolutely necessary and have been pre -authorized by the Executive Office. You may request ASR pre -authorization via e-mail to Tawni Helms in the Executive Office. Clearly describe your request and explain why it is necessary for the County to fund this service. You will be advised of the status of your request via e-mail. Department heads are directed to first consider transferring appropriation authority from other areas of their budget to fund any increased costs. Important ASR Guidelines Do NOT create "placeholder" ASRs. Only submit ASRs for services and activities that are thoroughly planned and will be ready for implementation: Costs are known. All county departments that will be impacted by the ASR know their respective role in the ASR, and they support the ASR. The ASR includes all related costs, including temporary help, overtime and labor costs to be reimbursed to other departments. For requests that do not meet these criteria (as in those not yet thoroughly planned or not yet ready for implementation), you will need to use the supplemental budget process. 2. Do NOT overwrite existing ASRs. When you create a new ASR, be sure you are in a new, blank ASR before you begin typing. We have had problems in the past with people overwriting existing ASRs when creating new one. 3. Separate ongoing from one-time costs. If your request has both ongoing costs and one-time costs, Page 5 create two ASRs (but only two). Of the two related ASR's, you may use the abbreviated Cost Maintenance ASR format on the ASR with lesser costs. For example, for a service that includes a new position, create an ASR for ongoing payroll costs and related ongoing expenditures; then create a second ASR for all of the related the one-time costs, such as computer equipment and furniture. In the description field for both ASRs, enter the corresponding ASR numbers for the related ASR (such as, "see ASR #2023-123 for corresponding one-time costs" and "see ASR #2023-124 for corresponding ongoing costs"). Examples are in Appendix E. 4. Be thorough. Make sure all required fields in the form are completed and that they contain only data that is relevant to the field's question or focus. Do not enter duplicate text in multiple fields. Important Note: Only complete and accurate ASRs will be considered. If you requested ongoing budget authority for anything other than a new position in the mid -biennium or monthly supplemental process, you will need to submit for an ongoing ASR to continue the budget authority in the new biennium. The supplemental budget process does not accommodate ongoing budget authority requests (other than for ongoing personnel positions). ASR Types There are two types of ASRs: Regular and Cost Maintenance. REGULAR ASR Complete a "Regular ASR" for each proposed new or enhanced service or capability. Be sure you comply with the General ASR Guidelines above. Complete all tabs on the ASR form. See below for ASR form components. COST MAINTENANCE ASR Cost Maintenance ASRs are requests that total $25,000 or less and do not involve new services or increased service levels (unless it is the lesser of two related ASR's). Cost Maintenance Requests are subject to the above restrictions. They are intended to be an easy means of requesting increases due to inflation or increased software maintenance contracts. Complete the first three tabs only on the ASR form. ASR Form Components • ASR Type (Regular or Cost Maintenance) • Quick Reference Name for the Request (must be unique and preferably 6 words or less). • Name of person (or persons) responsible for implementation. • Expenditure Type (ongoing or one-time) • Fund Number • Cost Center • Originator Name • Does request involve additional FTEs (or portions thereof)? (For Regular ASRs only.) • Does request involve additional facilities/ space? (For Regular ASRs only.) • By object account number, specific costs ASR Form Text Fields Description of Request a. Describe the proposed activity or service. b. Who are the primary customers for this service? (For Regular ASRs only.) Page 6 Everything on the form past this point is for Regular ASRs only. 2. Problem Description a. Describe the problem this request addresses and why Whatcom County needs to address it. 3. Options a. What other options have you considered? Why is this the best option? b. What are the specific cost savings? (Quantify) 4. Outcomes/ Objectives a. What outcomes will be delivered and when? b. How will you know whether the outcomes happened? How will success be measured? (Quantify) 5. Other Departments/ Agencies a. Will this impact other departments or agencies? If so, identify the departments and/or agencies impacted and explain what the impact(s) will be. b. If another department or agency is responsible for part of the implementation, name their person in charge of implementation and what they are responsible for. 6. Funding Sources What is the funding source? If you have questions or would like assistance with the outcome measurement component of the ASRs, call Marianne Caldwell or Brad Bennett. An example of a correctly completed ASR is attached at Appendix E. 3. Inventory of Services Your Inventory of Services from 2021 is stored in BPA. Review it and update as needed. Do not include services that are contingent on the adoption of an ASR. Be sure to inventory all services in your department separately. If there are services not yet documented in your inventory, create a new record for that service. Do not combine distinct services into a single record. As an example of separating services, in AS -Finance we have a record for each of the following: Payroll Accounts Payable Budget Development General Ledger and Annual Financial Report Jail Accounting Public Works Accounting Annual State Audit Purchasing COSTS AND FUNDING District Accounting/ Payroll District Accounting/ Disbursing Quarterly Financial Reports Administrative and Other Purchasing Asset Management Accounts Receivable Grants and Contracts For each service, make sure you use only 2023 information, and update all cost information forthe new budget year. You will need to input annual revenue, expenditures, unit of measurement, number of units provided annually, and number of staff hours. BPA will calculate the net cost (or revenue) and the per -unit cost for you. Include all costs that are not attributable to a specific service in a separate record for "Administrative Overhead." Add up all the "Annual Net Cost (Revenue)" amounts shown in the "Costs and Funding." This total needs to match your net base budget: (total annual expenditures, less your total annual revenues). If you need help with costing, contact Marianne Caldwell. Page 7 SERVICE PRIORITIES Review all services and rank them 1 to 3, 1 being mission critical. Service priority ratings do NOT necessarily correspond to whether a service is mandated or not. Services numbered 1 are the activities that are most critical to the department's mission and outcomes. Rate at least one third of your department's net expenditures as 3. If you do not review and change the ranking of your services, they will retain the default value of 3. If you need help arriving at a prioritization, contact Marianne Caldwell. 4. Fund Balance Analysis If your department manages any "funds," you will need to use BPA to complete a "Fund Balance Analysis" for each fund. The 2022 beginning fund balance is stored in BPA. You will need to enter the fund's 2022 projected expenditures and revenues to arrive at a projected 2022 ending fund balance. If you have questions about this section, contact Marianne Caldwell. Note: Projected expenditures and revenues are what you actually expect will happen this year. They are probably not the same as budgeted. If your fund usually does not spend out its entire budget, please allow for a budget lapse in your calculations. 5-6. 2023 and 2024 Personnel Step Dates You do not do any data entry for these menu items. These are reports that show "Personnel Step Dates" for 2023 and for 2024. Review these to verify salary ranges, steps and step dates that BPA uses to calculate employee salaries, and that there are no gross errors. The reports show how BPA arrived at the Gross Wage amounts in the Personnel Cost Summary reports. You do not need to recalculate salary amounts. If you find inaccuracies in positions, ranges, steps, or step dates, contact Marianne Caldwell, as described below. Changes to Personnel Cost Summaries can be made based on probable career path promotions. We will not make changes to Personnel Cost Summaries based on prospective SKEP promotions if they are dependent on passing tests or other competencies. 7-8. 2023 and 2024 Personnel Cost Summaries As with the Personnel Step Dates above, you do not do any BPA data entry for these items. These are reports that show your department's personnel cost information for 2023 and 2024. Review these reports to verify that all of your department's authorized positions are included (for both years) and that there are no gross errors. Again, you do not need to recalculate payroll costs. For your reference, wage tables are on Inside Whatcom in the Human Resources section. If changes to either report are needed, send a copy of the personnel cost summary (or personnel step date report), with changes marked in red ink, to Marianne Caldwell before the end of July. She will update the information in BPA and then contact you when it is ready. Important Note: You will use the Personnel Cost Summaries to enter expenditure amounts into JDE (using the Admin/ Budget Console). The numbers on these reports must match the numbers that you input into JDE. You can make changes during the budget process to assign budgets for personnel to new cost centers. However, you still need to submit payroll change forms to actually make the changes in the payroll system. 9. Unified Fee Schedule The unified fee schedule identifies most fees charged by Whatcom County. The definition of a "fee for service" charge is as follows: A set fee charged uniformly for services, privileges, or products provided to clients external to the organization. An ordinance adopting the Whatcom County Unified Fee Schedule (UFS) will be submitted to the Council Page 8 with the proposed 2023-2024 Budget. The UFS will set forth specific authorization and rates for all fees listed therein. UFS submissions are due with the regular budget submission. Important Note: Use BPA to review your department's rates and to create proposed additions, changes, or deletions to the 2023-2024 UFS. Evaluate your fees and rates to ensure that they are adequate to cover both direct and indirect costs. Departments are responsible for having supporting documentation to substantiate how you calculated the fees you are charging. If you need help evaluating costs or determining fees, contact Marianne Caldwell or Brad Bennett for assistance. If you have any changes, additions, or deletions to the fee schedule, use the UFS module to create a record for the proposed addition, change, or deletion. Print out the UFS rate change proposal report, review it, and submit it to AS -Finance with your budget submission. Update your UFS as part of your budget preparation. If there are changes that are contingent on ASR approval, note this in your ASR. Finance will arrange for you to update your UFS once your ASR is approved. WHAT TO EXCLUDE FROM THE UNIFIED FEE SCHEDULE Do not include fees and charges that are authorized and set by the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) or by the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) in the Unified Fee Schedule. If the RCW or WAC says the county "may charge" or "may charge up to" rather than "shall" or "will" charge, the fee must be adopted in the Unified Fee Schedule. 10. Budget Submission Checklist Complete a "Budget Submission Checklist" (one per department). The Department Head needs to review the department's entire budget submission and sign the checklist. The signed checklist goes at the very front of your budget submission. Make sure that each applicable item specified on the checklist is included in your budget submission. V. Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry In addition to the BPA data entry, you also need to enter all revenue and expenditure information into the accounting system. The system already contains the amounts for all line items from the final 2022 budget (excluding one-time ASRs). Use the Admin/ Budget Console to update these amounts and their corresponding narrative comments that detail information behind the amounts. Contact Marianne Caldwell if you need help with data entry. Detailed instructions are in Appendix C. Revenues Every department that budgets revenue must provide revenue projections for the next two fiscal years. Important Note: Make sure you include detailed explanations of each revenue source in the explanation (narrative) field. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR REVENUE EXPLANATION Information documenting all assumptions and sources used in developing your revenue projections for 2023-2024. Information on the expected timing of receipts (monthly, quarterly, and other). Information regarding increases or decreases in revenue projections for 2023-2024 over or below prior year projections. Page 9 • Where applicable, reference the state law that authorizes the revenue. Expenditures Every department must provide a budget expenditure request for the next two fiscal years. Important Note: Make sure you include a detailed explanation (narrative) of each expenditure account data entry submission. See Appendix F for an example of well -written narratives. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR EXPENDITURE EXPLANATION An itemization within line items, such as supplies (which may have a large percentage of the total budgeted for one type of purchase, such as paper, or one type of activity, such as ballot purchases). The itemization needs to show what makes up the items total. For contracted services (6610 - 6655), an itemization of each that includes the name of vendor, amount, and whether the contract exists or will be executed in 2023-2024, as well as any other relevant background information. USE THE PROVIDED EXPENDITURE AMOUNTS Provided in BPA, are the personnel costs needed for your department's expenditures. Make sure you use the figures from the Personnel Cost Summaries when entering your wage and benefit line item amounts. Continue to use the 2022 current expense, administrative cost, tort, ER&R, and building maintenance fee allocations currently in JD Edwards. Finance will adjust those figures when the Admin Services and other budgets are finalized. After entering your data into JDE, print out a "budget narrative report" for each year and pdf it with the rest of your budget submission to AS Finance, Marianne Caldwell by your budget due date. To print your budget narrative reports, see the instructions in Appendix C. Interfund Transactions Most interfund service allocations should be budgeted as operating transfers in and out (8301 and 8351 object codes). This will avoid overstating revenues and expenditures for financial reporting purposes since 8301 and 8351 accounts net to zero when combined countywide. Services to be accounted for in the operating transfer accounts include: the current expense allocation, Public Works and Health Department internal admin allocations, and support allocated from one fund to another. Examples of support allocations include: • Behavioral Health Program Fund funding of Probation's Behavioral Health Unit, Extension's Strengthening Families Program, Public Defender Behavioral Health Specialist position and Health's Nurse Family Partnership. • Flood's funding of NPDES and Stormwater. Instances of one fund actually purchasing services from another will still be accounted for in regular revenue (434X accounts) and expense accounts (such as 6699 Other Services - IF for M&O services or Jail Work Crew services). Object Accounts 6100 SALARIES AND WAGES IMPORTANT NOTE: FOR OBJECT ACCOUNTS 6710 THROUGH 6290, BE SURE TO USE THE AMOUNTS PROVIDED IN THE PERSONNEL COST SUMMARIES FROM BPA. 6110 Regular salaries and wages. Amounts paid for personnel services rendered by regular employees in accordance with the rates, hours, terms, and conditions authorized by law or stated in employment Page 10 contracts. Include all premiums paid to employees, for example premiums for carrying a pager. 6120 Extra Help. Wages for temporary employees. Use account 6620 for payments to temporary employment services. 6130 Out of Class. Payments to employees for work performed outside of normal classification, as provided for in labor agreements. 6135 Leave Payout (Retirement). 6140 Overtime. Payment for work outside normal working hours as provided for in labor agreements. 6190 Direct Billing Rate. Account used to accumulate charges for employee labor for grant accounting and job costing purposes. 6195 Direct Billing Rate Offset. Account established in an employee's home cost center to accumulate the offset of labor charge to another cost center for grant accounting orjob costing purposes. 6200 BENEFITS Coding - Include all medical insurance in account6245. Use account6255 fora// other health and welfare benefits (dental, vision, life, EAP, disability and state medical leave). 6210 Retirement. 6230 Social Security. 6245 Medical Insurance. 6255 Other Health & Welfare Benefits (dental, vision, disability, life, EAP and state medical leave). 6259 Worker's Compensation Plan. 6269 Unemployment Insurance. 6290 Applied Benefits (Job costing only). 6300 SUPPLIES 6320 Supplies. Office and operating supplies, for example: paper, pens, cleaning supplies, food (other than meeting refreshments - 7140), keys, signs, lumber, paint, electrical supplies. 6330 Printing. Printing and binding services purchased from an outside vendor. Includes printing envelopes and letterhead. 6340 Books,Publications, Subscriptions. Purchase of books,publications, and subscriptions for departmental use. Includes digital subscriptions/database access. Does not include cloud -based software subscriptions (see 6625). 6370 Medical Supplies. Medical supplies purchased for use in county facilities. 6410 Fuel. Purchases of fuel from outside vendors for use in motor vehicles and equipment. 6429 Fuel, Interfund. Purchases of fuel from county departments for use in motor vehicles and equipment. 6480 Purchases for Resale. Usefor goods purchased for resale to county departments orthe public. Examples: automotive repair parts (ER&R), maps, concession supplies, codebooks, fuel. 6500 SMALL TOOLS & EQUIPMENT 6510 Small Tools & Equipment. Small tools and equipment costing less than $5,000 per unit, or with a useful life of less than two years, purchased from an outside vendor. For equipment over this limit, use account 7410. 6520 Software. For software purchased costing less than $5,000 per unit. This account should include most Page 11 PC software, original purchase, and upgrades. Also includes periodic license renewals less than the $5,000 capitalization limit. For cloud -based renewals see 6625. 6600 OTHER SERVICES & CHARGES Contracts - Separate account line items are not recommended for each individual contract. Detail is required in your expenditure narrative for all contracts included in your appropriation requests. 6610 Contracted Services. Services provided that are contracted to outside vendors that do not meet the professional services or repair & maintenance definitions. Examples: video production, towing, cleaning services, web hosting. 6620 Contract Employment. Fees paid to businesses or self-employed individuals for temporary services. Example: temporary employment services. 6625 Software Maintenance Contracts. Includes cloud -based software subscriptions, Zoom and Go -To - Meeting licenses. 6630 Professional Services. Services involving established professions requiring advanced knowledge or education. Services are predominantly mental or intellectual, rather than physical or manual. Examples: architects, engineers, consultants, labor negotiators, legal services, accounting and auditing, programming services. Other examples of professional services can be found on the Finance web page FAQs at http://wa-whatcomcountyintranet.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/909/Professional- Services-Defined-PDF. 6635 Professional Services, Health Care. Health care services provided to Whatcom County that are contracted or purchased. Example: medical and dental services. 6650 Court Investigations, Evaluations. Payments made to provide legally mandated court services. Examples: judges pro tem, arbitrators, guardian ad litem, criminal conflict services. 6655 Interpreter Services. 6659 Building Maintenance Fees. Use the amounts carried forward in JDE. 6680 Equipment Maintenance. Examples: office equipment, voting machine, JAVS, parking paystation maintenance agreements. 6699 Other Services, Interfund. For payments not classifiable to another contracted services account and paid to another county department. 6700 COMMUNICATION 6710 Postage, Shipping, Freight. Stamps, postage, and post office box rental charges; shipping costs on outbound goods. 6719 Postage, Interfund. Postage and shipping fees purchased from a county department. 6720 Telephone (including landlines and cell phones). 6760 Miscellaneous Communication. Example: messenger service. 6770 EMPLOYEE TRAVEL 6780 Employee Travel, Education/ Training. Travel by an employee for the purpose of attending a training class, seminar, or conference (including mileage, meals, lodging, and any incidental costs). Does not include costs for rental cars or fuel paid directly to vendors. 6790 Employee Travel, Other. Work related travel costs not associated with a training class. Does not include costs for rental cars or fuel paid directly to vendors. Page 12 6800 ADVERTISING 6810 Advertising. Payments for advertisements. Example: legal notices. 6850 RENTALS 6860 Equipment Rental. Example: copiers (including usage charges), rental cars paid directly to vendors, other vehicles, heavy equipment, office equipment, tools. 6869 Equipment Rental, Interfund. Equipment rental from another county department. Use subaccount .501 for ER&R vehicles and use amounts carried forward in JDE. Note: Do not use 6869 or 6869.502 for copier rentals, use 6860. 6870 Space Rental. 6879 Space Rental, Interfund. Payments for the rental of office or storage space from another county department. 6900 INSURANCE 6910 Insurance Premiums. For insurance purchased directly from outside agent. Use benefit accounts for insurance applicable to personnel benefits. 6949 Insurance Premiums, Interfund. For insurance premiums paid to a county department. Insurance Assumptions: For tort fund insurance premiums. Use amounts carried forward in JDE requested budget. 6950 UTILITYSERVICES 6960 Water/ Sewer Services. 6970 Gas. 6980 Electric. 6990 Solid Waste. 7000 Other Utilities. 7050 REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE 7060 Repairs & Maintenance. Example: Contracted (external) labor and supplies furnished by the contractors for repairs and maintenance. 7069 Repairs & Maintenance, Interfund. 7070 Minor Remodeling. Use this account for improvements to existing buildings and structures that cost less than $50,000. For remodeling costs of more than $50,000, use account 7350 or 7380. 7100 MISCELLANEOUS 7110 Registration, Fees, Tuition. Amounts paid for tuition or registration fees to attend a class, seminar, or conference, including meals provided by the course sponsor. 7115 Membership Fees or Association Dues. 7120 Judgments/ Damages/ Claims. 7130 Witness/ Jury Fees. Fees, meals, and supplies provided for witnesses and juries. 7140 Meeting Refreshments. Page 13 7159 Administrative Cost Allocation, Interfund. Use amounts carried forward in JDE. 7190 Other Miscellaneous. Examples: filing and recording fees, information and credit services, laundry services, engraving services, non -employee bus tickets, license fees (e.g., elevator operator), service licenses, or certifications (e.g., CPA, pesticide applicator, counselor, or nurse), direct assistance on behalf of clients (Veterans Relief, DVPOTS programs). 7199 Other Miscellaneous, Interfund. 72001NTERGOVERNMENTAL/INTERFUND SERVICES & TAXES These accounts should be used only for specialized services typically performed by local governments. Do not include expenditures that happen to be paid to another government but are not governmental in nature. 7210 Intergovernmental Professional Services. Expenditures madetoother governmental entitiesfor services rendered. Intergovernmental services are limited to functions normally provided by governments and not by private businesses. Do not include expenditures that happen to be paid to another government but are not governmental in nature, such as insurance, utility charges, microfilming services, rentals, repairs, and supplies. Also, do not include any interfund expenditures. Examples of intergovernmental services: Medic One services, What -Comm Dispatch services, Whatcom Conservation District services. 7220 Intergovernmental Subsidies. Grant payments to other governments (e.g., economic development grants, DEM grants). 7225 Intergovernmental Subsidies - Loans. Loan disbursals to other governments (e.g. economic development loans). 7230 External Taxes and Operating Assessments. Payments to other governments based on levies against property or income owned by the county. Do not separate sales taxes from the cost of the article or service purchased. Examples: business and occupation tax, leasehold excise tax, excise tax, refuse collection tax. 7310-7450 CAPITAL OUTLAYS Capital outlay items are those that cost over $5,000 and have a useful life of more than two years. This encompasses all capital outlays, including computer equipment and software. Small tools and minor equipment, and smaller software purchases (cost is equal to or less than $5,000) should be included in accounts 6510-6520. Capital expenditures result in the acquisition of, rights to, or additions to fixed assets. All related costs should be included such as legal, appraisal and brokerage fees, land preparation and building demolition, fixtures and delivery costs. 7320 Land. Cost of land purchased plus all fees associated with the purchase. 7350 Buildings & Structures. Acquisition and major improvements of buildings and structures and all related costs. Examples: office buildings, jails, garage and shop buildings, park buildings, storerooms, warehouses, major remodels, and renovations. 7380 Other Improvements. Improvements to facilities. Examples: alleys, lighting systems, athletic fields, parking areas, bridges, roadways, culverts, sidewalks, water & sewer systems, storm drains, fuel depots, streets, seawalls, dikes, landfills, fencing. 7400 MACHINERYAND EQUIPMENT See definition of "Capital Outlay" above. Note: Use accounts 6510-6519 for machinery and equipment with a cost of less than $5,000 or a life of less than 2 years. 7410 Machinery & Equipment. Machinery and equipment with a unit cost of $5,000 or more and a useful life of more than two years. Examples: communications, janitorial, office and laboratory equipment; office Page 14 furniture, police dogs, heavy equipment, vehicles. 7420 Computer Equipment. Computer equipment and software with a unit cost of $5,000 or more and a useful life of more than two years. This includes custom software developed under contract. 7450 Capitalized Leases. Finance uses this classification for the total cost of an asset acquired with a capital lease. We will track a lease agreement in the fixed asset accounting system as a capital asset if the lease agreement covers the substantial portion of useful life of an asset. We will treat a capital lease as an installment purchase of property rather than the rental of property. If you suspect you have a capital lease, contact Kristin Fuchs (5326) for help with accounting. Payments under installment purchases and capital leases are coded to accounts 7570 and 7730 as debt service. Any rent or lease payments that do not fit in the above categories should be charged to accounts 6860-6879, Operating Rentals and Leases. 7500 DEBT SERVICE PRINCIPAL 7510 General Obligation (GO) Bonds 7710 Interest on Interfund Debt. 7730 Interest on Long Term Debt. 7790 Other Debt Service Costs. 8300 TRANSFERS 8351 Transfers -Out. Represents transfers out of one county fund into another. While not technically expenditures, Transfers -Out are included in the expenditure budget as an offset to Transfers -In in the revenue budget. The net effect of both on the overall budget is zero. Use this account for both operating transfers and residual equity transfers. Examples of when to use: General Fund subsidy of Jail Operations, Flood Fund subsidy of Stormwater Operations, several department subsidy of Pictometry project, equity transfers to ER&R for new vehicles. Note: Do not use this account for fees charged by internal service funds. Budget those expenditures to 6869 Equipment Rentals or 6879 Space Rentals. For services contracted or sold to other departments, use 6699 or 7069. VI. Department Organization Provided by separate email will be a copy of your department's 2021 organizational chart. Using red ink, mark up changes to your department's structure directly on this chart. Important Note: Make sure that the job titles on the chart agree with the job titles on your Personnel Step Date Report. Check your chart carefully and mark any necessary changes. Include the reviewed chart (amended or not) in your budget submission. Do not add positions requested in ASRs or unapproved reclass requests. Page 15 Appendix A - Salary Matrices Salary Matrices Salary matrices are included in the wage tables under Quick Links on the HR page in Inside Whatcom. Pending contracts will be added when adopted. If you have questions concerning the range applicable to any given position, call your HR representative. Page 16 Appendix B - Personnel Benefits Fringe Benefit Assumptions 2023 - Per Eligible Employee ACCT FRINGE BENEFIT PLAN NAME COVERED GROUP COVERAGE FOR COUNTY -PAID ESTIMATED RATES 2023 TOTAL ESTIMATED RATES 2023 6210 Retirement PERS I All employees Employee 10.25% % of salary PERS 11 Employee 10.25% % of salary PERS III Employee 10.25% % of salary PSERS Employee 10.39% %of salary LEOFF II Employee 5.30% % of salary 6230 Soc Security N/A All employees Employee 7.65% % of salary Teamsters Plan "B" (Includes TL & Disability Waiver) Unreps, Master, Corr Deputies, PROTECI7 FOP x 2 AFSCME Family $1,390.40 $16,685 WCIF 200 IBU Family $1,283.00 $15,396 6245 Medical Masters, Mates & Pilots Ferry (3 MMP employees) Family $1,419.25 $17,031 WCIF 500-tiered WSNA Family Average $1,031.00 $12,372 LEOFFTrustFX- tiered DepSher only Family Average $1,763.00 $21,156 6255 Dental WTWT Dental Plan A Unreps, Master, Corr Deputies, FOP CSM AFSCME Family $125.00 $1,500.00 WCIF WA Dental (Option 3) FOP (SSM), PROTEC 17, DepSher, WSNA IBU Family $120.00 $1,440 Teamsters Extended Unreps, Master, Corr Deputies, FOP x 2 AFSCME Family $17.60 $211 6255 Vision WCIF Standard Plan WSNA, Local 17, IBU Family $16.25 $195 6255 Life WCIF Basic +AD&D All employees Employee $7.50 $90 max Reliance Standard Life DepSher Employee $50.00 $600 Reliance Standard Life Undersheriff, FOP x 2 Employee $60.00 $720 6255 Disability Sunlife (Unreps) Unreps Employee $0.0038 X base salary $456 max Sunlife (Health) WSNA, Local 17 Employee $0.0084 x base salary $201.60 max 6255 EAP KEPRO All employees including districts Family $2.45 $29 Self -Insured 150100 Field & Other Employee $0.35 $728 Self -Insured 530607 Office & Admin Employee $0.25 $520 Self -Insured 690101 Volunteers&Jurors Employee $0.10 $208 6259 Workers' Comp Self -Insured 690501 Law Enforcement Employee $1.70 $3,536 Self -Insured 150200 Laborers Employee $1.85 $3,848 Self -Insured 690601 Volunteers- Law Enf Employee $0.30 $624 6269 Unemployment Self -Insured All employees but elected officials Employee 0.13% % of salary 6269 State Medical Leave WA State All employees except Dep Sheriff Employee 0.161 % % of salary 6269 State Medical Leave WA State Dep Sheriff Employee 0.30% % of salary Page 17 Appendix B - Personnel Benefits Fringe Benefit Assumptions 2024 - Per Eligible Employee ACCT FRINGE BENEFIT PLAN NAME COVERED GROUP COVERAGE FOR COUNTY -PAID ESTIMATED RATES 2024 TOTAL ESTIMATED RATES 2024 6210 Retirement PERS I All employees Employee 10.25% % of salary PERS 11 Employee 10.25% % of salary PERS III Employee 10.25% % of salary PSERS Employee 10.39% %of salary LEOFF II Employee 5.30% % of salary 6230 Soc Security N/A All employees Employee 7.65% % of salary Teamsters Plan "B" (Includes TL & Disability Waiver) Unreps, Master, Corr Deputies, PROTECI7 FOP x 2 AFSCME Family $1,459.40 $17,513 WCIF 200 IBU Family $1,347.00 $16,164 6245 Medical Masters, Mates & Pilots Ferry (3 MMP employees) Family $1,488.75 $17,865 WCIF 500-tiered WSNA Family Average $1,083.00 $12,996 LEOFF Trust FX - tiered DepSher only Family Average $1,851.00 $22,212 6255 Dental WTWT Dental Plan A Unreps, Master, Corr Deputies, FOP CSM AFSCME Family $129.00 $1,548 WCIF WA Dental (Option 3) FOP (SSM), PROTEC 17, DepSher, WSNA IBU Family $125.00 $1,500 Teamsters Extended Unreps, Master, Corr Deputies, FOP x 2 AFSCME Family $18.10 $217 6255 Vision WCIF Standard Plan WSNA, Local 17, IBU Family $16.75 $201 6255 Life WCIF Basic +AD&D All employees Employee $7.50 $90 max Reliance Standard Life DepSher Employee $50.00 $600 Reliance Standard Life Undersheriff, FOP x 2 Employee $61.80 $742 6255 Disability Sunlife (Unreps) Unreps Employee $0.0038 X base salary $456 max Sunlife (Health) WSNA, Local 17 Employee $0.0084 x base salary $201.60 max 6255 EAP KEPRO All employees including districts Family $2.45 $29 Self -Insured 150100 Field & Other Employee $0.35 $728 Self -Insured 530607 Office & Admin Employee $0.25 $520 Self -Insured 690101 Volunteers&Jurors Employee $0.10 $208 6259 Workers' Comp Self -Insured 690501 Law Enforcement Employee $1.70 $3,536 Self -Insured 150200 Laborers Employee $1.85 $3,848 Self -Insured 690601 Volunteers- Law Enf Employee $0.30 $624 6269 Unemployment Self -Insured All employees but elected officials Employee 0.13% % of salary 6269 State Medical Leave WA State All employees except Dep Sheriff Employee 0.161 % % of salary 6269 State Medical Leave WA State Dep Sheriff Employee 0.30% % of salary Page 18 Appendix C - Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry Instructions Instructions for JDE Entry Start the Administrative and Budget Console by double clicking the desktop icon and then: Signon - Administrative and Budget Console About Enter your JDE User ID and Password at the Sign On Screen User ID Password Administrative and Budget Last Updated: October 23, 2015 CONSOLE Sign On Your JDE User ID Your JDE Password (C) COPYRIGHT IBM CORP. 1960, 2009. Welcome to Whatcom County's i520 Computer System For problems, see your IT Contact or call DoIT at x5232 or 776-5232 System WHATCOM Subsystem QINTER Display JWALK0004 WARNING: This computer system belongs to Whatcom County. You may use it only if you have authorization and only for uses authorized by Whatcom County Policy. (See Whatcom County Policy AD152001Z.) Whatcom County has the right to monitor any or all uses of this computer system, and may do so without prior notice to users. (See Whatcom County Policy AD152002Z.) By using this computer, you are signifying that you accept these conditions. Unauthorized use of the system is prohibited and may be subject to criminal and/or civil penalties. (Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Q,.--;+.. P,14,- OF A Qan+;n., F F A) If you encounter "An error has occurred while processing the script" error, click OK, then select the menu you normally use to get into JDE. xI Page 19 Appendix C - Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry Instructions To enter budget: MAIN MENU File Help n -Ftha n oull 11 Y Financial System Administrative and Budget Console Cost Center Lookups Cost Center F- = vvh�,L�Iu Links APPOL Home Page Budget Document 1 hatcom Co Web Page Other Lookups Acct Balance by Object Vendor Payments Reports =t Narrative Report I E II K= Jobs } Sign Off Sign Off Page 20 Appendix C - Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry Instructions To enter budget (continued): -01-- Requested (cycle 1) Cost Ctr (14102) Skin to Expenditures 2. Enter Cost Center number, then Press Enter. er (Account Number is Optional) Add or Edit Memo Accept Changes and Redisplay FYI - Make sure you select "Requested" under Budget Cycle, Final and enter the correct Fiscal Year. Print Scrn Error Text 15 1„ Requested (cy€Iel) Cost Ctr (14102) - Requested Budget (by Cost Center) nter) W H Fiscal Year 17 U v Page Next Page Amount 14 Original or Annual I z Z 0 =MU Cost Center.Account Number (Account Number is Opti FYI: When there is not a line item selected Dl 7-7 Open PO's 507130 , 6 AS Finance in the list -box, the option buttons are Skip to Expenditures disabled. Fixed Assets .J.� Add or Edit Memo I Accept Changes and Redisplay I Prev Page Next Page = I Budget Cycle Approved Final Print Scrn Error Text j }I IX I Description Account Nu Office & Op Supplies 507130.5320 10,400.00 Office & Op Supplies- 507130.5329 Printing 507130.5330 5,000.00 Printing-Interfund 507130.5339 Books -Publications -Su 507130.5340 3,000.00 Fuel 507130.6400 Fuel 507130.6410 Small Tools & Equipmen 507130.6500 Tools & Equip 507130.6510 3,400.00 Tools & Equip-Interfu 507130.6519 Software 507130.6520 2,500.00 Other Services & Charge 507130.5500 2 4 2 z Q 2 0 r�^ ■ Page 21 Appendix C - Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry Instructions To enter budget (continued): -01-- Requested (cycle 1) Cost Ctr (14102) Requested Budget (by Cost Center) Cast CenterAccount Number (Account Number is Optional) 507130.6 AS Finance Skip to Expenditures (3. Edit amount (Expenditures are RED items below have memos. To see memo, select item positive, revenues are negative) Add or Edit Memo I Accept Changes and Redisplay Prev rag Budget Cycle Office & Op Supplies 507130.6320 Approved Office & Op Supplies- 507130.6329 Final Printing 507130.6330 Printing-Interfund 507130.6339 Books -Publications -Su 507130.6340 Fuel 507130.6400 Fuel 507130.6410 Small Tools & Equipmen 507130.6500 Print Scrn Tools & Equip 507130.6510 Tools & Equip-Interfu 507130.6519 Error Text '9177 Requested (€y€le1)CostCtr(14102) 1 Requested Budget (b Cast CenterAccount Number (Account Number is 507130.6 AS Finance Skip to Expenditures 10,400.00 3,000.00 3,400.00 W H 'ear 19 :dit Memo" J Next Page �*�1 2 4 2 Z n 0 4. Press"Accept Changes and W Redisplay" button. Fiscal Year 19} RED items below r,,ve memos. To see memo, select item d doubleclickOR select and press "Add or Edit Memo" J Add or Edit Mem Accept Changes and Redisplay I Prev Page Next Page 0 2Budget 1116-m—'r Cycle4-"�a�Office & Op Suplies 507130.6320 10,400.00 Approved Office & Op Supplies- Printing-Interfund 507130.6329IL 507130,6339 Final Books -Publications -Su 507130.6340 3,000.00 7 Fuel 507130.6400 0 Fuel 507130.6410 0 Small Tools & Equipmen 507130.6500 Print Scrn Tools & Equip 507130,6510 3,400,00 0 Tools & Equip-Interfu 507130,6519 }r► Error Text Software 507130,6520 2,300,00 4 Other Services & Charge 507130.6600 fI [� WEECB 7 Page 22 Appendix C - Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry Instructions To add or change a narrative, use the same screen as on previous page and: -01-- Requested (cycle 1) Cost Ctr (14102) Requested Budget (by Cost Center) Cast Ce We r.Acco u nt Number (Acco 507130.6 AS Fina Skip to Expenditures RED items below have memos. Add or Edit Memo i 9p■ Budget Cycle Office & Op Supplies Approved Office & Op Supplies - Final Printing E Ia:1® 1. Select a line and press "Add or Edit Memo" button OR double click on the calYear 19 line. dd or Edit Memo" and Redispl Prev Page Next Page Books -Publications -Su Fuel Fuel Small Tools & Equipmen Toots & Equip Print Scrn Tools & Equip-Interfu Error Text �, 11 Exrlanations of Budget RequestE (0016) Budget Cycle Reque: Approved Final Print Scrn 50713 .6320 5071 .6329 507130.6340 507130.6400 507130.6410 507130.6500 507130.6510 507130.6519 Requested Budget- Narrative Note: Be sure to saveyour changes before exiting. Insert Line I Delete Li For printing of year end annual report calendar, standard forms, purchase order payroll checks, and accounts payable the WEXECB 3. Press "Vto return to prior screen or"Main Menu"to close. 10,400.00 3,000.00 3,400.00 2 W H J 2 4 2 Z n 0 0 Cost Center 507130 Object Account 6330 W Year 2019 1fj =r Info Next Page .J annual budget, Administrative Services = osit forms, c 2. Edit text and press 24 "Save Changes": 2 z Q 2 0 r�^ Page 23 Appendix C - Admin/Budget Console - JDE Data Entry Instructions To print budget narrative report: -0 MAIN MENU File Help vfhatl oni our Financial System nd Administrative and Budget Console Cost Center Lookups Cost Center 507130 Links APPOL Home Page Budget Document Whatcom CoWeb Page Other Lookups 1. On the Main Menu in the "Reports" section, press Budget Narrative Report. wo(rce I �N 262 Budget Narrative Report 2. Enter Fund and/or Cost Center. Error Text WEAECB Reports Budget Narrative Report Select Budget Type Requested r' Approved r Final Fund (leave blank cost center) k for ALL cost ci t Zero -Balance Accounts?- Yes f` Na E Suppress Narrative from Print? r' Yes • No (Default) =0® Fiscal Year Tol, 2 W t- J b 2 Z /0 Y 0 ■ Page 24 Appendix D - Printing From BPA Printing from BPA Using the Microsoft XPS Document Writer: Within BPA, with the item opened that you want to print, select PRINT OPTIONS. Exit m Print Options om - Close Print 46lindow Select the MICROSOFT XPS DOCUMENT WRITER as your printer and select OK. Printer Name: Properties Status: Ready Type: Microsoft XPS Document 4N riter Where: XPSPort: Comment: r Print to File Print Range Copies C• Ail Number of Copies: FIEJ i Pages From; To: 3 3 � Collate i' Selected Record(s) 1.2 1.2 Setup... OK Cancel When the "Save the file as" screen is displayed, select COMPUTER in the left hand menu. (Do NOT choose DESKTOP — that will save to the BPA server Desktop, not yours.) DrohBan(�ko.whatcon.wa.usyoot�... - - ail -e: - U Organize - Views - New Folder •:A:• Name � 1-1 Dale modified 1-1 Type 1-1 Sire Favorite Links Windo'n's7 astasini Desktop DTB Active Directory ]wj Computer Applications . Audits _ U Oo¢rments Badaps . Budgets J Pictures CAB Calendars Music Call Phones . Cascadia Rising ® Recently Changed Certifications .Cisco SCC ® Searches Consultant Copiers . Contracts . County Survey �y Public CTS . Data Center Databases . Dell Folders n Department CheckIns . DIS File name: Save as type: IXPS Document (-.xps) Hide Folders Save Cancel Page 25 Appendix D - Printing From BPA Printing from BPA Using the Microsoft XPS Document Writer (continued): When the next screen is displayed, in the right hand window, double click on the drive location you wish to save to. (Do NOT select C: - this is the BPA server drive.) -r. Computer Organize - y Yews Favorite Links W Desktop 8W�i Computer F) Documents inPictures Music Recently Changed ® Searches 1, Public New Folder ame 1-1 Type - 1-1 Total Sire 1-1 Free Space I Hard Disk Drives (1) Local Disk (C:) Network Location (6) Apps DTothBan whatoom.wa.usyo... ft.whatcom.wa.usyoo... �• 414- IT Multi azo.whatcom.wa.usyoo... azo.whatcom.wa.usyo... lu 40qw- . Maps root aco. whatcom. wa. us) aco.whatcom.wa.usyoo... (W:) F0 Folders n Otber (a) 0 File name: Save as type: XPS Document (•.xps) Hide Folders. In the example below, "Multi" was selected. Salle Cancel j _ J Computer - M It a)i o.xfiahnm.wa.ustoot] (I.) I 1 _ _ _ _ • •' Organize Favorite Links N Desktop -11+ Computer Jj Documents F— Pictures IR Music Lf� Recently Changed ® Searches I Public Folders A File name: `,xps Save as type: XPS Document (`. xps) Hide Folders • Browse to the folder location where you want to save your file to. • Type in a FILENAME. • Select SAVE. N Views - _r New Folder 4A Name - I -I Date modified I -I Type I -I Sire I -I �. Admin................................................................... . Budget . Bulletin Board . County GPT EIS Hours 0. G I S . WiAShared �. PDR2009-028 ,. Projects Technology A. Reference Center Save Cancel Your XPS document will be saved to that location, and you can now open it and print to any printer you would normally have access to. Page 26 Appendix E - ASR Examples ASR Examples: 2019-2020 Budget Preparation - Regular Additional Service Request Sheriff Operations ASR # 2019- 5731 Fund 1 Cost Center 2900 Originator: Doug Chadwick Expenditure Type: Ongoing Add'I F T E C� Add'I Space -1 Priority 3 Name of Request: 1 FTE Patrol Lieutenant 2019 costs: I Object Object Description 2019 Requested 2019 Approved 1 2020 Requested 2020 Approved 6110 Regular Salaries & Wages $117,504 $117,504 $122,278 $122,278 6210 Retirement $8,607 $8,607 $8,962 $8,962 6230 Social Security $8,989 $8,989 $9,354 $9,354 6245 Medical Insurance $15,564 $15,564 $15,564 $15,564 6255 Other H&W Benefits $1,996 $1,996 $1,996 $1,996 6259 Worker's Comp-Interfund $3,536 $3,536 $3,536 $3,536 6269 Unemployment-Interfund $411 $411 $428 $428 6429 Fuel-Interfund $3,974 $3,974 $3,974 $3,974 6720 Telephone $780 $780 $780 $780 6869 Equip Rental- I nterfu nd $7,560 $7,560 $7,560 $7,560 Totals $168,921 $168,921 $174,432 $174,432 1. Description of Request. a) Describe the proposed activity or service, and indicate whether it is a higher or lower priority than existing services in your department budget. This ASR is to fund ongoing costs of hiring 1 new Patrol Lieutenant. See ASR 2019-5958 for corresponding one time costs. Addition of a Lieutenant position, responsible for overseeing law enforcement personnel and resources within the Bureau of Law Enforcement and Investigations. This is an essential position, responsible for supervising the Patrol sergeants/deputies and specialty units to ensure that law enforcement services provided to the public are conducted in an efficient and effective manner. In order to maintain a professional and effective response to calls for service, it is critical that a manager monitor patrol related activities and identify areas where improvement or efficiencies can be made. It is imperative that a manager monitor staffing and operations related to Patrol, to make sure that limited resources are being spent and deployed in an efficient manner. The additional Lieutenant position will improve spam of control and provide better management of resources and accountability. The addition of a Lieutenant will serve to place them in the field on a regular basis, to include evenings and weekends, to better manage supervisors and assess the delivery of services to the public. b) Who are the primary customers for this service? The citizens of Whatcom County, as a result of a highly professional and effective patrol division. This is the largest bureau of the Sheriff's Office and responsible for visible patrols and response to calls for service from the public 2. Describe the problem this request addresses and why Whatcom County needs to address it. Due to the increasing number of FTE's, special programs, community expectations, and new legal mandates, the Sheriff's Office is in need of another lieutenant position to provide operational oversight and risk management functions. Currently there is one lieutenant assigned to support services and investigations. This position oversees the Detective Division, Drug and Gang Task Force, Criminal Interdiction Team, Crime Scene Investigators, Courthouse Security, Boating Safety, Fleet Management, Training, and Scheduling. The other lieutenant is assigned to field operations. This position oversees Patrol, Traffic Unit, K9, Search & Rescue, Resident Deputies, Neighborhood Deputies, Forest Patrol, Honor Guard, Special Events Team, Tuesday, September 25, 2018 Rpt: ASR - BYDEPT Req and App Page 27 Appendix E - ASR Examples ASR Examples (continued): 2019-2020 Budget Preparation - Regular Additional Service Request Sheriff Operations ASR # 2019- 5731 Fund 1 Cost Center 2900 Originator. Doug Chadwick and the new Crisis Intervention Deputy. This position is also our liaison to the WhatComm dispatch center, and manages our portable radio communications. The new crisis intervention deputy is the latest example of a new program that will take additional time to administer at the lieutenant level. There is no doubt that this program will be an asset to the agency as we work to connect citizens dealing with mental health crisis to local service providers. It is our goal to expand this program with additional FTE's in the future. The SWAT and Special Events Team are two more examples of programs that have been added to the workload of our lieutenants. Each team has extensive training requirements, and a large amount of equipment to be managed. Due to the ever increasing administrative duties of the position, the field operations lieutenant is struggling to meet some of the basic job duties of the position, including: 1.Provide Leadership and direction to all assigned operation. 2.Supervises and directs all assigned staff including sergeants, deputies, support personnel 3.Accountability and compliance with policies and procedures, CBA, and legal requirements The field operations lieutenant supervises 7 sergeants and approximately 55 deputies. These positions work in the field 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is difficult for the lieutenant to find time to be in the field supervising his subordinates. Usually this is done by working additional hours above and beyond the standard work week. By adding a new lieutenant position to field operations. the two lieutenants can split responsibility for the days of the week. Both field operations Lieutenants would function as a Watch Commander with direct oversight of field resources, to include evenings and weekends. Both would have days when they are responsible for field operations, and other days when they can complete administrative work and conduct strategic planning. This would provide direct interactions and improve management of sheriff's office resources in the field. 3. Options a) What other options have you considered? Why is this the best option? Upgrade an existing sergeant position. This would require the new Lieutenant to assume some of the administrative duties previously handled by the sergeant. The addition of a lieutenant provides increased management of programs and resources, while maintaining the number of sergeants in the field that are supervising the daily activities and response to calls for service from the public. b) What are the specific cost savings? (Quantify) Increased Risk Management and reduced liability to the County. 4. Outcomes / Objectives a) What outcomes will be delivered and when? The addition of a Lieutenant position will result in consistent direction and oversight for the Patrol Division and specialty units, thus reducing inefficiencies and improving the effectiveness of the limited patrol resources. It will also provide for risk management and analysis of patrol operations to limit liability and improve public safety services. b) How will you know whether the outcomes happened? Lieutenant has been promoted and placed in the position 5. Other Departments/Agencies a) Will this ASR impact other departments or agencies? if so, please identify the departments and/or agencies impacted and explain what the impact(s) will be. NA Tuesday, September 25, 2018 Rpt: ASR - BYDEPTReq and App Page 28 Appendix E - ASR Examples ASR Examples (continued): 2019-2020 Budget Preparation - Regular Additional Service Request Sheriff Operations ASR # 2019- 5731 Fund 1 Cost Center 2900 Originator. Doug Chadwick b) If another department or agency is responsible for part of the implementation, name the person in charge of implementation and what they are responsible for. NA 6. What is the funding source for this request? General Fund Tuesday, September 25, 2018 Rpt: ASR - BYDEPT Req and App Page 29 Appendix E - ASR Examples ASR Examples (continued): 2019-2020 Budget Preparation - Cost Maintenance Request Sheriff Administration ASR # 2019- 5958 Fund 1 Cost Center 2900 Originator: Dawn Pierce Expenditure Type: One -Time Relative Priority 3 Name of Request: 1 FTE Patrol Lieutenant 2019 One Time Costs Description: This ASR is to fund one-time costs of hiring 1 new Lieutenant. See ASR 2019-5731 for corresponding ongoing costs. Costs: $ 3,185 Hiring costs (background investigation $2200, psych eval $400, physical $505, eye exam $80 $ 2,195 Guild Contract (clothing, duty belt/keepers, handcuffs/cases, duty weapon, holster, mag pouch) $10,965 Equip (MDT/printer $4675, radio $4100, armor/helmet $1190, PBT $480, Taser $350, tools $170) $ 3,580 Training (Basic Law Enforcement Academy $3200 and academy clothing $380 $ 175 Supplies (Badge/brass, belt liner, 1st aid kit, aerosol restraint) $48,000 Vehicle $68,100 Total Object Object Description 2019 Requested 2019 Approved 2020 Requested 2020 Approved 6320 Office & Op Supplies $45 $45 $0 $0 6320.001 Office & Op Supplies $3,895 $3,895 $0 $0 6510 Tools & Equip $9,775 $9,775 $0 $0 6610 Contractual Services $2,200 $2,200 $0 $0 6635 Health Care Services $985 $985 $0 $0 7110 Registration/Tuition $3,200 $3,200 $0 $0 8351 Operating Transfer Out $48,000 $48,000 $0 $0 Totals $68,100 $68,100 $0 $0 Tuesday, September 25, 2018 Rpt: CMR Req/Appry Report Page 30 Appendix F - Narrative Examples Narrative Examples: Example 1: ■i B Explanations of Final Budget (DO16) Budget Cycle Requested Approved Print 5crn Error Text 111=2111yyII 1/1 Example 2: get - Narrative e Line Z= User Infc Coat Center 128 Object Account 4313 Year 2022 State distribution of taxes imposed on the sale or consumption of goods and/or services, with limited exemptions. The County receives an automatic one halt of 1: collected, plus an additional local option of half of 1: as specified in RCk1 82.14.030. The County receives .15: of sales tax distribution for incorporated cities within the County, 2919 actual uas $15,603,700 cash basis 202B - COVID 2021 - 93. of 2019 2022 - 5. recovery over 2021 Prev Pegs jjext Page WEXE CA 116 Explanations of Flnal Budget (DOI6) — ❑ XC Final Budget- Narrative coat Center 3308 L Object Account 6538 F Year 2022 rJl Insert Line Delete Line Oser Info next Page J 20,000 - Banking services. For payment of warrants, check and deposit processing, checking accounts for all departments. u' $16,000 - Lock box payment processing service. 2 Budget cycte $3,206 - DOR Disclosure Agreement Contract - Sales and Use tax monitoring. 11 Aequesled $1,500 - AFTS historical lockbox check image hosting, Z AIPPFowed i Print Scrn Error®Text I Al WEXECA Page 31 Appendix F- Narrative Examples Narrative Examples (continued): Example 3: '10 11B Explanations of Final Budget (D016) — ❑ X Cast Center 118160 object Rccount 6635 F Year 2822 Insert Line Oelete line � User ]nfo PL P::.. text Page J Includes contracts for health care providers as follows: d Jail physician $ 123,455 0 Nurse Practitioner $ 20,068 2 Budge! Cycle Dentist $ 30,000 Requested Rdministratiue Physician $ 14,080 Approved Base Rmount $ 195,624 $2,000 of the Jail Physician costs is for continuing education reiribursement and ` included in acctAt 71913 r[ Print 5crn Error Text 'I�Al WEXECA Final Budget- Narra#ive z n 0 �CC 0 Page 32 Appendix G - Budget Policies Administering the County Budget - POL AD123001 Z This policy applies to all department heads. Whatcom County Adopts a Biennial Budget The biennial budget consists of two -one-year budgets. Except for the General Fund, Whatcom County Council authorizes annual expenditures by fund. The Council authorizes the General Fund budget by department. Director of Administrative Services (County Executive) Manages County Budget The Director of Administrative Services manages the county budget on a day -to- day basis and proposes budget amendments to the County Executive. The Director of Administrative Services may propose decreases in expenditure budgets for programs where revenues are not meeting budget projections. The Director of Administrative Services may propose increases to expenditure budgets to fund needed county services if sufficient revenues exist. County Executive Requests Budget Amendments The County Executive or designee requests the County Council increase or decrease the budget by introducing a budget amendment ordinance. 4. County Council Amends County Budget The County Council approves increases or decreases to the county budget by ordinance. The Council may change the supplemental budget ordinance, however the net expenditure by fund may not be increased. Department Heads Monitor Budgets Monthly 6. Department Heads Only Authorize Expenditures Within Budget Department Heads will be held personally liable for any expenditure that exceeds their approved budget (Whatcom County Charter Sec. 6.90). 7. Department Heads Have Spending Flexibility Only Within Object Groupings Within object groupings in the same fund, the Department Head can use budgeted expenditure authority between line items. Department Heads must not exceed total budget authority within object groupings. Object groupings: • Wages (account codes 6110 - 6199) • Benefits (account codes 6200 - 6299) • Capital Outlay (account codes 7300 - 7499) • Other (all other account codes) 8. Department Heads Request Approval to Move Funds Between Object Groupings The Department Head will submit Budget Transfer Requests to move budget between object groupings. 9. Department Heads Use Restricted Appropriation Authority as Specified The Department Head will use budget authority awarded for grant -funded projects, additional service requests (ASRs), and supplemental budget requests only for those approved purposes (WCC 3.02.110 Section BA. and Ord. 93-042 Exhibit E). 10. Department Heads Consider Options Before Requesting Additional Budget Authority The Department Head will submit Supplemental Budget Requests only after other options in the existing budget are exhausted. Other options include reprioritizing services and using projected budget lapses. Page 33 Appendix G - Budget Policies Administering the County Budget - POL AD123001 Z (continued) 11. Department Heads Report Revenue Shortfalls Immediately The Department Head will promptly notify the Director of Administrative Services (County Executive) if budgeted revenues will not be realized. 12. Department Heads Submit Continuing Appropriation Requests The Department Head will submit requests by the date published in the AS Finance Manager's Year -End Memo. Requests to continue budget authority to the following year must: • Only include purchases or services with a valid purchase order or contract in place on December 31. • Stay within unexpended appropriation authority. • Comply with restrictions on appropriations. • Equal or exceed $1,000. • Only include goods or services specifically authorized in the budget (e.g., ASRs, supplementals) or, by contract, planned to be completed within the budget year (WCC 3.02.050). 13. County Executive Approves Continuing Appropriation Requests County Executive or designee may approve requests as necessary to meet county commitments. Page 34 Appendix G - Budget Policies Setting Fees for County Services - AD12340OZ This policy applies to all department heads in the development of the Unified Fee Schedule. Department Heads Document the Full Cost of Providing Services The Department Head will include direct costs and overhead in establishing fees for services. Department Heads Survey Comparable Fees from Other Entities For new fees or fee increases over 10%, the Department Head will document fees for comparable services from other entities. Department Heads Propose Fees to Recover Full Cost The Department Head will propose fees to cover the cost of the service provided. The Department Head may propose fees below cost when services provide a public benefit. Public benefit includes services that benefit the direct recipient and the public. If services charged are below cost, the Department Head will provide projected percentages of costs recovered. 4. Department Heads Charge Washington State Fees at Maximum Rate The Department Head will charge fees mandated or allowed by Washington State at the maximum allowable rate, regardless of cost. 5. County Executive Recommends Fees and Cost -Recovery Goals The County Executive will recommend fees and cost -recovery goals to the County Council. 6. County Council Adopts Fees Biennially Biennially, the County Council will adopt fees in the Whatcom County Unified Fee Schedule Ordinance. 7. County Executive Adds or Adjusts Fees The County Executive may add or adjust fees by Executive Order during the biennium. Page 35 Appendix G - Budget Policies Accounting for Grants & Restricted Revenues - AD129010Z This policy applies to all Department Heads whose departmental operations are funded by grants or restricted revenues (e.g., state vessel registration distributions). 1. Department Head Manages Grants in Accordance with Grant Contract 2. Department Head Uses Grant and Restricted Revenues to Fund All Eligible Expenditures Prior to Using Any County Resources 3. Department Head Assigns a Grant Administrator for Each Grant Department Head designates a grant administrator on the contract information sheet for each grant contract. 4. Department Head Builds Capacity for Federal Grant Administration Department Heads anticipating receiving federal grants will require Grant Administrators to complete the Washington Finance Officers Association Federal Grant Requirements class. Class availability can be found online. 5. Department Head Captures Grant Costs in a Unique Cost Center The Department Head will charge all grant related revenues and expenses, including expenses used as match, to a unique grant cost center. If two or more grants are used to fund the same project all grants may be accounted for in the same cost center. 6. Department Head Requires Employees to Track Work Time Department Head ensures employees required to track grant -funded work hours account for ALL hours worked on both grant -funded and non -grant -funded activities. 7. Department Bills Grants Promptly Unless the grant contract specifies otherwise, Department Heads bill grants monthly if reimbursable costs exceed $5,000 per month. Department Head will bill grants at least quarterly based on calendar year quarters. 8. Department Head Obtains Written Approvals to Deviate from Grant Terms The Department Head will not deviate from grant contract terms without a formal grant amendment. If formal grant amendment is not required by the grantor agency, the Department Head will obtain other written authorization to deviate from the grant contract. Page 36 PROPOSALS SUBMITTED AS OF 5.20.2024 Council Office • Expand staff capacity — consider options such as: ➢ 1 FTE Deputy Clerk ➢ 1 FTE for Council/councilmember communications, PIO, intergovernmental affairs, community engagement, and special projects ➢ 1 FTE for County Advisory Group centralized administrative support and facilitation ➢ +1-2 FTE Portfolio based policy analysts including budget and finance ➢ 1 FTE shared councilmember administrative support ➢ OR ➢ 7 FTE Per councilmember Legislative Aide • Increase Councilmember travel budget (especially for WSAC/NACo) • Council grant program - For small projects and councilmember priorities — Example: King County • 2025 IPRTF and JPOP Facilitation (to be funded from the Jail Fund) Other requests/priorities • Twin Sisters Market - $110,000 (attached funding request) • Expand Whatcom Conservation District FireWise (may already be in Exec priorities) • Increase juror daily compensation (confirmed by Admin this is set by Council) PROPOSALS SUBMITTED AS OF 5.20.2024 Council Office • Expand staff capacity — consider options such as: ➢ 1 FTE Deputy Clerk ➢ 1 FTE for Council/councilmember communications, PIO, intergovernmental affairs, community engagement, and special projects ➢ 1 FTE for County Advisory Group centralized administrative support and facilitation ➢ +1-2 FTE Portfolio based policy analysts including budget and finance ➢ 1 FTE shared councilmember administrative support ➢ OR ➢ 7 FTE Per councilmember Legislative Aide • Increase Councilmember travel budget (especially for WSAC/NACo) • Council grant program - For small projects and councilmember priorities — Example: King County • 2025 IPRTF and JPOP Facilitation (to be funded from the Jail Fund) Other requests/priorities • Twin Sisters Market - $110,000 (attached funding request) • Expand Whatcom Conservation District FireWise (may already be in Exec priorities) • Increase juror daily compensation (confirmed by Admin this is set by Council) • Additional support for the Whatcom County Food Bank Network (see the attached proposal) • Additional county -run year-round shelter (related to draft proposal being worked on by three councilmembers) • Recruitment bonuses to help fill the open corrections slots in the Sheriffs office (a request from the Sheriffs office should expected at some point during budget process) • Increase IT budget for project management software across several departments • Additional staff in HR to help onboard new staff & upgrade harassment/bullying/retaliation policies & procedures • Additional staff in finance to help process contracts quicker