Finance department proposes outsourced grant services and ERP hosting; committee approves budget but requests fringe and debt details

The Barnstable County finance department presented a FY2027 budget that includes moving the county’s ERP hosting to a vendor, adopting a countywide procurement marketplace and outsourcing grant-management services — steps staff said will reduce cyber risk and streamline purchasing even as contractual services rise.

Director Copela told the committee the recommendation to host the Munis ERP with an external provider (Tyler Technologies) reduces internal cyber-security risk and that a one-time hosting and procurement-platform setup will increase finance contractual services in FY27 but should yield efficiencies going forward. The department is also proposing to outsource grant-management services, which reduces the department’s FTE count from 11 to nine. Director Copela said the net finance budget increase is modest (about $41,000) after those changes.

Committee members probed assumptions: several asked why contractual services rose substantially while salary and fringe lines fell, and how fringe estimates (initially budgeted at a 15% increase) would change when updated to an 8% health-insurance assumption. Director Copela explained the timing and counting rules for fringe budgeting and noted that some cost shifts are one-time (hosting and procurement marketplace setup). The committee took a roll-call vote to recommend the finance department budget to the assembly.

The committee did not finish detailed reviews of central fringe benefits, miscellaneous/contingency (about $2 million) and debt-service lines (about $761,000). Director Copela explained that fringe centralization includes retiree group insurance (~$1.3 million), workers’ compensation and a proposed $135,000 stipend to incentivize opt-outs; members requested a full line-item breakout and a debt schedule showing principal, maturities and interest rates before final assembly consideration.