Roosevelt County officials to iron out fiscal budget

PORTALES — Roosevelt County commissioners are once again in the position of having to decide what to cut and what to keep in regard to the county budget.

County officials shared their priorities with commissioners this week during two budget workshops in which most departments presented commissioners with 2017-18 fiscal year budgets larger than the budgets for the current current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The following were each department’s budget as presented to commissioners on Wednesday and Friday morning in the Commission Room of the county courthouse:

• Roosevelt County Sheriff Malin Parker said his deputies are in need of body cameras, and people have offered to pay for the cameras, but no one wants to pay for the biggest associated expense — storage.

County Manager Amber Hamilton informed commissioners that she and Parker also increased the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office’s insurance deductible to protect the office against litigation and so on.

Total budget request: $1.5 million

Amount over last year’s budget: $56,357

• Treasurer Layle Sanchez asked commissioners to make her part-time employee a full-time employee, so she can help collect property taxes on mobile homes.

Sanchez said the county is 96 percent collected on property taxes, but she wants to be at 98 or 99 percent, which means going out in person to collect.

“I really need this full-time person to get out there and help,” she said. “She’s bilingual; I’m not. It’s been very convenient to have her there to explain how things work.”

Total budget request: $250,550

Amount over last year’s budget: $37,167

• County Clerk DeAun Searl asked commissioners for two part-time employees to “get control of my record books.”

Searl said public record books are being destroyed by the public, and she needs to have them scanned and digitized. To have a company digitize the records would cost $150,000 just for the warranty deed books alone.

The county could eventually turn a profit from having the books digitized, she said, because it could sell subscriptions for people to be able to access the records online without even coming to the courthouse.

“Eventually, they (the books) will be lost (without digitizing),” Searl said.

Total budget request: $316,109

Amount over last year’s budget: $21,885

• Assessor George Beggs told commissioners he would like to put the money his department gave to the county during its budget crisis last year back into his department’s 401K account.

Total budget: $431,883

Amount over last year’s budget: $70,348

• Road Department Superintendent Ricky Lovato told commissioners he needs a new tractor ($100,000), two pick up trucks ($31,000 each) and digital radios ($24,000).

He and Hamilton told commissioners that within a few years, analog radios will be non-existent and the county will be required to have digital.

Lovato told commissioners that he also wants a part-time employee to work on the shredder.

Total budget: Just over $2 million

Amount above last year’s budget: $108, 924

• Hamilton reported on behalf of Probate Judge Michelle Bargas that probate costs went down with personnel due to an employee they had budgeted to take full family benefits not having done so. She said telephone costs increase slightly due to Bargas wanting another phone line installed.

Total budget: $31,763

Amount above last year’s budget: -$8,969

• Maintenance Manager Gary Spinks and Hamilton told commissioners that they would like to start changing the fairgrounds over to LED lighting to capitalize on an Xcel Energy rebate program.

Hamilton said the two biggest priorities would be the Special Events Center and the Jake Lopez Community Center, because they are the biggest energy users.

Hamilton said the upfront expense of the changeovers would be $24,000 for the events center and $13,000 for the Lopez Center. She said changing to LED will pay for itself in about four years.

The roof of the pavilion at the fairgrounds also needs to be fixed, which is a cost of $65,000, Spinks and Hamilton said.

Spinks also told commissioners the maintenance pick up truck has 156,000 miles on it and is starting to have problems, so replacement is necessary soon.

Total budget: $483,290

Amount over last year’s budget: $166,003

• Flood plain and GIS Manager Johnny Montiel asked for $685 for computer software than last year due to costs having gone up.

He also asked for a new GPS unit ($3,600) and lap top ($3,500), which will be required by the state within the next year.

Total budget: $109,665

Amount over last year’s budget: $14,854

• Hamilton asked commissioners for a three-quarters-time administrative assistant for her office, which would be about a $40,000 increase in her personnel budget.

Hamilton also told commissioners that the administration office could use new online software called GeoGov ($7,200) and Incode ($12,000) to “catch up with the modern times.”

Some recertification costs also upped the administration budget by about $10,000.

Total budget: $404,361

Amount over last year’s budget: $50,808

Hamilton warned commissioners during the Wednesday workshop that there will be less project revenue coming into the county this next fiscal year.

She also told commissioners that she would suggest they restructure and stagger capital outlay next year instead of distributing it to everyone right at the start of the fiscal year on July 1.

The final budget workshop will be held Tuesday following the regular county commission meeting at 9 a.m.