Libraries, elderly services, EMS and IT face cuts or reassignments in draft Gadsden County budget

The budget workshop included a department-level account of where money is being reduced, where costs rise and how staffing changes are being proposed.

Finance Director Ray Knight said elderly affairs would decline from $755,498 to $666,554 (removing one full-time and two part-time positions), EMS would fall from roughly $7.7 million to $7.2 million through shared positions and vacancies, and extension services would move from $566,000 to $493,000 with one proposed position impacted. She also said facilities spending grew to about $3.15 million because of higher repair, insurance and contract costs, and that library administration is shifting staff to branch libraries.

Knight said information technology and management services rose chiefly for cybersecurity insurance, systems upgrades and replacement of cameras after a server outage. Public works shows fewer dollars because of vacancies, and constitutional officers' budgets rose by roughly $1.4 million compared with the prior adopted budget. Commissioners repeatedly asked that the packet list which services would be affected by any personnel reductions and whether some tasks could be reassigned rather than eliminated.