Lake County Emergency Communications Board members on Monday reviewed proposed budget figures for fiscal 2026, discussed a $25,000 reduction in projected Emergency Telephone Charge (ETC) revenue and agreed to keep intergovernmental agreement (IGA) payments at current levels while allowing the incoming director flexibility to staff from existing vacancies.

The board’s finance lead said the current-year projections show roughly $25,000 less ETC revenue than had been forecast; the ETC rate in effect for 2025 is $2.17 per provider and staff examined options that ranged from keeping the rate unchanged to proposals in the $3.00–$3.50 range. The presenter said using a conservative monthly-average projection puts the end-of-year revenue about $25,000 below the earlier projection but noted that 2024 closed stronger than midyear projections suggested.

Keeping the IGA payments unchanged matters because the board is weighing how much of its fund balance to use to smooth members’ payments. Staff identified a three-month minimum fund-balance policy target of about $332,000 and said the projected fund balance available for discretionary use is roughly $468,500. With those figures, the presenter proposed not raising member payments in 2026 and instead using fund balance across one-to-four-year scenarios to spread any one-time reductions in member obligations.

Board discussion also focused on personnel. The group reviewed salary and benefits line items, incentive pay, and a county 2% cost-of-living adjustment process that required aligning internal position budgets to county payroll mechanics. Staff said the worksheet now reflects base pay plus individual incentives (education, bilingual pay, field trainer, shift differentials) with a 2% offset so the county can later apply its 2% across-the-board adjustment.

On staffing strategy, members agreed not to increase the overall budget for 2026. Instead, they directed staff to give the incoming director, Sarah (named in the meeting), discretion to use current vacancies and overtime savings to pursue part-time or on-call (PRN) hires if operationally appropriate. Several participants emphasized that PRN hires should be experienced so they can staff shifts without extensive retraining; board members also flagged the risk that inexperienced part-time hires can increase training costs and turnover.

Other budget items discussed included a Motorola maintenance/software subscription that will recur starting in 2026, a possible CallWorks/recording-system cost that needs confirmation, a planned dispatch equipment install and test (training and test weeks were described as imminent), and training and travel budgets that were reduced on the assumption much training remains virtual. Staff proposed a $10,000 equipment-repair/maintenance allowance for 2026 and a smaller travel/training budget than 2025 because most training is now remote.

No formal roll-call vote was recorded during this session. The board coalesced around the approach of submitting a balanced FY2026 budget without increasing IGA assessments, documenting any use of fund balance as a transfer in the budget submission, and allowing the director operational flexibility to fill vacancies with a mix of full-time, part-time and PRN workers depending on need. Staff said they will circulate the final budget for approval and that a proxy/emailed approval option will be used if members cannot attend the scheduled approval meeting.

Board members asked staff to return with a final budget worksheet that (1) shows the transfer from the fund balance where used to lower member payments, (2) itemizes the Motorola/software maintenance and any CallWorks/recording-system integration costs, and (3) includes scenarios for spreading the one-time fund-balance drawdown over two to four years. Staff also committed to supplying finalized 2024 closing numbers for a more precise comparison to the 2025 and 2026 projections.