Photo by Joanne Beck
Genesee County Manager Matt Landers had asked county departments to submit their needs as part of the 2025 budget process and the response included 10 additional corrections officers, a public works project manager, two sheriff’s office financial positions, a district attorney student intern and HR temp clerk.
All totaled, the county could have a gap of about $1 million, Landers said.
“It’s a challenging budget right now, as I said in the budget meeting, where the gap, and what I call the gap, is the difference between my revenues and expenses, countywide, it's about $415,000. There's some known expenses, based on recent meetings with departments, that'll increase that to probably around $600,000, and then there's anticipated cost increases, because we're going through a salary study process right now that could raise that up to $800,000 to a million,” Landers said to The Batavian after the second budget meeting for the season. “So now I'm looking at different avenues that I can potentially close that gap through one-time funding opportunities like fund balance or reoccurring revenues, and looking at things like our interest earnings, sales tax, things like that, that I can try to close the gap or potentially reducing certain projects and costs.
“And so this is the part of the process that takes the longest, but I am optimistic that by the time I finalize the budget in two weeks that I will deliver a budget that is well under the tax cap, which was the direction that the legislature gave me.”
Legislator Gary Maha asked about the sheriff’s request for jail personnel.
“The 10 extra CO’s, did that come from a staffing analysis?” Maha said.
Yes, Landers said, there was an analysis, but something more detailed is to be coming.
“But what I’ve asked for, and what they’re working on, I’ll get to see is basically a visual representation of where the posts are for every line, A line, B line, C line, where they are, where I can better ask questions,” Landers said. “It’s not set in stone with the 10, because I myself have asked for a visual representation of where the posts are. There was, I think, a misunderstanding at the last meeting, because that wasn’t available.
“They've got now two CO’s in the control room versus one, and that was something that, hindsight is 2020, where our consultants thought that one would be adequate, and I think the CO’s even thought it would be adequate, but now that they're running it, it doesn't appear to be adequate. But at the same time, as a layperson myself, I asked the question, well, do they need it staffed for the overnight when there's less activity. They claim there is, but this is the kind of visualization that I look forward to seeing,” he said, answering the legislator about the analysis performed. “And there is an argument, because the overtime costs for this place is going through the roof, where we're budgeting an extra $100,000 in overtime costs from last year, even with the CO’s, the extra CO’s, just because the amount of people that’s needed, like I said, the analysis that was provided at the early stages, versus now, it's off a little bit. And I want to better understand this, because I want to make sure I go back to the consultant and just basically help them understand, for future reference, where they may have been off a little bit, and then other impacts.”
An upside, he said, is that the five of the CO’s will be hired in April 2025, which saves some money for the first four months of the year, and there are six single ($18,834) and nine family ($25,112) medical insurance plans for additional cost savings, he said.
There are other impacts to the new jail facility part of the analysis that also may not have been considered, he said, such as maintenance costs and how long it takes a cleaner to actually walk through the building. There are several security doors and the cleaners have to wait for each one to slowly open by someone in the control room, and then to completely shut behind the cleaner before proceeding on with the task at hand. That adds 20 to 30 minutes to each job.
In the Public Works Department, the commissioner has requested a new, full-time project manager position at an estimated $80,000 plus benefits of about another $40,000. This is due to the amount of construction projects in progress and coming up, including at Holland Land Office Museum, the Animal Shelter, Engine House, and many bridges, Landers said.
Landers was in agreement with the district attorney’s request for a student intern, at a small salary of $3,000, and with the hopeful payoff of putting people in the pipeline for future assistant DA positions, he said.
It’s a balancing act of trying to cut as much as possible while being able to remain functional. Landers said it's a balance of trying to be conservative and aggressive at the same time.
"The motto or the theme that I've been telling these departments, because we've been cutting a little deeper, and I reassure them that this doesn't impact their ability to operate. It may require them to shift funds amongst their accounts,” Landers said. “But if they need to run the jail, they do have to run the jail effectively. If they need funds to do that and they can't shift, then that problem becomes my problem, and that's why I have a contingency line and other pots of money that I can pull from as well. But every dollar that we can shave out of their budget is one less dollar that I have to take from taxpayers to fund their operations.”
The county’s Agricultural Society and Genesee Orleans Council on the Arts each asked for a funding increase, which isn’t likely to happen, Landers said. All agencies were forewarned that funding would probably stay flat this next year, he said.
“It's not a major secret. I had requested in my my letter of funding request that I sent to the outside agencies that this was going to be a difficult budget, to expect flat funding. Most of them put requests in at flat funding,” he said. “A couple of them have small requests of increases. So yep, we will keep them at flat funding, so we're not going to be able to honor the increase that they've requested. But you know, as I said in the meeting, I love it when we have the opportunity to provide these agencies some additional funding, because they can do a lot of the things the county can't do or we're not good at doing, we're not experts in, and we are happy to see these funds go to so many outside, worthwhile organizations that do a lot of good for our community.”
The major departments of Sheriff’s Office, Mental Health Department and Social Services will be meeting with Landers and legislators and more budget sessions are scheduled before a final budget will be presented for a final vote and adoption.
