County commissioners adjust budget authority to cover deficits

In other words, the spending in some departments – particularly and notably county court – exceeded what had been budgeted. The county court issue was created by the increased usage of court-appointed counsel for indigent defendants (lawyers outside the realm of the public defender’s office).

There was a series of technical steps that had to be taken.

“This is the first time we’ve had to do this since I’ve been here and that’s been 12 years,” Commissioner Randy Obermier said, “so it doesn’t happen very often.”

They held a public hearing to open the budget. Commissioner Daniel Grotz explained how two funds – the Community Development Block Grant and State Institutions – needed funds. The CDBG fund had a deficit because the amount of budgeted grant funds allocated for a pass-through project for the Four Corners Health Department did not include the administrative fees. The State Institutions fund saw higher expenditures because of a higher number of incidents where Emergency Protective Custody (EPCs) was required.

Regarding budget authority, Grotz explained how within the general fund, each office or department has its own budget authority. “This year, we expanded the county court budget. All the court-appointed counsel bills go through there and we had a very large amount.” He explained how the county board can move budget authority around (from one fund to another, within the general fund) to cover deficits.

They moved $173,500 in budget authority from other funds into the county court fund to cover the shortfall. The county court’s budget had already been $280,000, so the spending was well over what was budgeted.

Obermier warned how the county court costs will likely continue to be an issue, saying the county’s public defender’s office stopped taking on new cases three months ago due to high caseload, “so our payments to outside court-appointed counsel are going to continue to increase, even beyond what we’ve already seen.”