By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

The Ellis County Commission continued working on its 2019 budget in a special meeting Thursday morning at the Ellis County Courthouse.

Despite being halfway through 2018, it appears that the county will have some difficult decisions to make when it comes to 2019. County Administrator Phillip Smith, in a budget preview earlier this month, told the commission the county faces a budget deficit of approximately $645,000 if it does not increase the mill levy.

If the commission raised the mill levy 5/8 of a mill, the most allowed under the tax lid, the budget is still about $400,000 short.

Before the eight department heads presented their budget requests to the commission on Thursday, Commissioner Barb Wasinger said she is not in favor of an increase in the mill levy.

“I think that with the budget in the millions of dollars such as we have, there should be a way that we can cut our budget down to fit and not raise the mill levy,” Wasinger said. “Be fiscally responsible. I think we can do that easily.

“So I will not vote for an increase in any mill levy.”

Among those presenting their budget requests Thursday was Ellis County Attorney Tom Drees.

Drees told the commission he is asking for an increase of $38,000, with $29,000 of that bringing salaries for assistant county attorneys to the midrange average for salaries in Kansas.

“I know that the county has done an outstanding job getting employees up to midrange. We need to share in that also,” said Drees.

According numbers presented Thursday by Drees, his office ranked 15 in the number of criminal convictions and civil adjudications in the state in 2017. Ellis County ranks 21^st in population.

Drees also presented a statewide comparison of the total number of staff working in each county office and salary comparison.

In fiscal year 2017, Ellis County had five attorneys and six support staff members. Among five counties in similar size to Ellis County, only Harvey County had fewer staff members with 9.5.

Lyon and Finney counties have 19 total staff members. Ford County has 18.

Drees said that Ellis County compares well with Lyon County. Both counties have a four-year institution, a major highway runs through each county and the population is similar. According to Drees, the Lyon County attorney has a budget of $1.9 million while Ellis County budgets $900,000 for the county attorney.

Commissioner Dean Haselhorst said, “That goes to show you’re more efficient.”

Drees also said salaries within the county attorney’s office are below other comparable counties.

According to Drees, the average mid-range salary in comparable counties is about $69,425. Ellis County’s mid-range number is $62,000, about $7,000 difference.

“We’ve held the line on budget … and that’s a good thing,” Drees said. “But we also have to be fair to our employees.”

The rest of the departments that presented on Thursday kept their requests close to their prior year’s request.

County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes also presented the county with some good news on Thursday saying that the insurance rates were less than anticipated. He said the weighted average for the county was about 7 percent.

• • Register of Deeds – 2019 Request: $232,833
    • Increase of $20,599 from 2018 budget
  • Sheriff – 2019 Request: $3,825,548
    • Increase of $40,677 from 2018 budget
      • Sheriff Ed Harbin said they trimmed approximately $145,000 because they have reduced the number of inmates housed out of county. They are working with the county attorney and the Hays Police Department to reduce the offenders who commit small crimes out of jail.
  • Courts – 2019 Request: $390,545
    • Same request of last year
  • Drug Court – 2019 Request: $30,000
    • Court officials are preparing to establish a drug court in Ellis County that will serve lower level drug offenders
      • It will be funded through matching grants but the requested $30,000 will help with startup
        • Judge Glenn Braun said they had 159 felony drug conviction in Ellis County last year and while not all of them could have gone through Drug Court a large number could have.
  • Information Technology – 2019 Request: $673,274
    • Increase of $12,926 from 2018 budget
      • IT Director Mike Leiker said they are going to be looking at adding a security analyst position in the future. They have set aside money for that position and have pending retirement and plan to reorganize once that retirement takes place.

• Health Department – 2019 Request: $618,031
  • Increase of $86,314 from 2018 budget
    • Had a $55,208 increase in salaries with the addition of an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)
      • Director of Health Services Kerry McCue told the commission that they are not going the number of patients at the Health Department that they would like to see. McCue said with the addition of an inhouse biller and increased awareness of the services the APRN offers they will see an increase in revenue.
• EMS – 2019 Request: $3,109,119
  • Increase of $172,521 increase from 2018 budget
    • The salary increases were from negotiations
• Emergency Management – 2019 Request: $78,503
  • Increase of $3,318 from 2018 budget
• Communication Center – 2019 Request: $101,500
  • Decrease of $640 from 2018 budget
• Rural Fire – 2019 Request: $591,890
  • Increase of $4,286 from 2018 budget
• Next Generation 911 – 2019 Request: $208,500
  • Increase of $47,925 from 2018 budget
    • NG 911 funds come from taxes on cell phone bills. Director of Fire and Emergency Management Darin Myers told the commission that they have collected $215,000 to $220,000 each of the last few years.
    • NG 911 funds can only be spent to support the 911 infrastructure.

The rest of the of the county department heads will present their budget requests in a special meeting on June 28^th.