Committee approves law-enforcement budget amendments; ambulance amendment postponed to June

The Budget and Finance Committee approved two year-end budget amendments related to law enforcement and deferred consideration of a $60,000 ambulance amendment to June pending more information about turnover and vacation payouts.

Amy, the committee’s budget staff, explained that 10118G (law enforcement training, $14,400) represents state funds already received that will be paid to eligible deputies as annual supplements. The committee approved 10118G and a second internal transfer (1103G, $2,400) for sheriff salary supplements.

On the ambulance amendment (1805 / 11805 in discussion), Amy said the department requested $60,000 — $30,000 from the ambulance fund balance and $30,000 shifted from part-time staff lines — to cover overlapping vacation payouts and regular salaries caused by turnover.

Committee members asked procedural and policy questions about how vacation payouts are calculated and whether paying out accrued vacation can create overtime or audit findings. As one member noted, higher overtime and holiday-pay accounting adopted in recent years has pushed up personnel costs in some funds.

Unable to resolve the outstanding questions about how the ambulance payouts would be handled without creating audit exceptions, the committee voted to postpone the ambulance amendment until June to allow staff to gather details on how many payouts and how part-time balances would be affected.

What’s next: The committee will ask EMS and finance staff to provide a breakdown of ambulance vacation payouts, how overtime holiday pay is applied, and whether part-time staffing can be used in the interim. The approved law-enforcement amendments will be processed as budgeted.