Land Use & Resource Management presents 2027 budget with small net decrease, staffing reorganization and $225K grant expected

Land Use & Resource Management staff presented the department’s proposed 2027 budget and described structural staff changes and multi-year technology upgrades.

“Mandy” (department presenter) said the department is proposing elimination of an Administrative Clerk 3 position that became vacant and advancing two Administrative Clerk 2 positions to Clerk 3 because duties can be absorbed by existing staff; overall the department shows a slight net decrease from the 2026 budget of roughly $2,000. The department also expects to receive a targeted runoff management grant of approximately $225,000 in 2027 for a manure-storage structure in the Upper Turtle Creek watershed.

Staff outlined ongoing capital projects and a multi-year software migration: an in-house sanitation tracking application is scheduled to be migrated to the cloud, and the department plans later to implement digital permitting and online application submittals. Officials cautioned that vendor integration and add-on functionality could raise annual maintenance from about $30,000 now to nearer $100,000 with the new features. Supervisors discussed space-savings that could follow digitization and asked staff to return with additional trend information on short-term rental licenses at an upcoming meeting.