County budget reviews with heads start this week

Whitman County has the 2018 budget well underway, and meetings between department heads and the Board of County Commissioners will be ongoing for the next two weeks.

Gary Petrovich, county administrator, informed the commissioners last week he has been reviewing the submitted budgets from each department. All departments have turned in their budgets, and he is reviewing them in conjunction with County Auditor Eunice Coker.

Petrovich said it is too preliminary now to say what the final budget number will be for 2018. He is still in the process of reviewing that, and the department head meetings over the next two weeks could change the number.

Petrovich said last week that he has already found some errors in the submitted budgets, and he is working to correct those before the department heads begin their meetings with the commissioners.

“A lot of time on their initial submissions they (the departments) have errors that we need to correct,” said Petrovich. “We also need to make sure they didn’t miss anything.”

In those meetings, the department heads will detail their budgets to the board.

“They will be presenting as to what they see as their goals and issues and what they want to accomplish,” said Petrovich.

These meetings will last approximately 30 minutes for each department, and Petrovich said the presentations will actually leave the commissioners little time to ask questions.

“They’ll be quick and packed,” he said.

The meetings are public. A schedule will be available on the Board of County Commissioners’ agenda which is posted at http://www.whitmancounty.org.

“Certainly if anyone’s interested, they’re welcome to attend,” said Petrovich. “It’s usually just the commissioners, the department heads and myself.”

Meetings began Wednesday, resumed today, Sept. 7, and will resume again Tuesday, Sept. 12, and Sept. 19.

Following the meetings, the commissioners will work with Petrovich and Coker to address concerns and potential deficits.

“The board will then have to proceed on deciding what to do,” said Petrovich. “They’ll have to look at things like how the budget is going to be bridged and how to fix any deficits.”

Petrovich also said the commissioners have decided to schedule a second budget amendment for the 2017 budget. That hearing is tentatively being put on the schedule for Dec. 4.