Thurston Co. set to approve $1B budget. Some officials don’t trust the numbers
READ MORE
Thurston County works to close 2026 budget deficit
Thurston County commissioners are deciding how to close an estimated $36 million budget gap in the general fund, the county’s primary operating fund, for 2026.
Expand All
Thurston County commissioners are divided on the proposed biennial budget and the process to build it.
The Board of County Commissioners is due to approve a new $1 billion budget for 2026 and 2027 during their regular meeting at The Atrium on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
The new budget contains about $9.8 million in spending cuts to the general fund, the county’s primary operating purse. The breadth of the cuts is expected to reduce and delay taxpayer-funded public services, county officials have said.
County Manager Leonard Hernandez and budget staff presented the board with a projected deficit as high as $36 million earlier this year, then found ways to mitigate that to $9.8 million in cuts. Meanwhile, some elected officials have raised concerns about the reliability of budget data that the board used as a basis for making decisions this year.
Among them are Commissioners Rachel Grant and Emily Clouse. Both have contrasted with their three other seatmates by repeatedly voicing their vexation with the budget process.
“When projections aren’t accurate and numbers don’t reconcile, it really erodes trusts, and it makes decision-making harder than it needs to be,” Grant said.
Ahead of the final budget vote, The Olympian spoke with each of the county’s five commissioners to get their thoughts on the budget process.
The majority expressed trust in the proposed budget and lauded the efforts of county staff, some of whom are relatively new to their roles.
“I have a lot of confidence in the county manager and the new budget manager, and I think that we’re all going to grow through this process and build on this experience,” Commissioner and Board Chair Tye Menser said.
Hopefully, we won’t have to make these kinds of cuts in future years, but even if we did, I think we’ll be able to do it better. I just think there was a confluence of factors that made this especially tough.”
‘The documents didn’t line up.’
Grant has often voted no on budget decisions, saying she was uncomfortable with the numbers she has been presented with.
“We’ve had too many moments during this cycle where information has changed midstream,” Grant said. “We’ve had different documents. The documents didn’t line up, and it has created confusion for the board and for the public.”
Though she appreciated the hard work of budget staff, Clouse said the budget process has been frustrating.
“What we’ve seen are living documents or current reports coming forward with errors that nobody knows about until later, after decisions about that information have already been made,” Clouse said. “... It really makes me feel like I can’t trust the numbers that we’re getting. And that’s been a common theme throughout the entire process.”
In a recent example, Budget Manager Summer Miller informed the board on Dec. 3 that she had overstated the spending cut to the Clerk’s Office by $350,000.
This error was included in an errata list and corrected. That reduced the planned 2026 cut to the Clerk’s Office from about $1.1 million, about a fifth of their total budget for that year, to $777,478.
Grant, who has a behavioral health policy and finance background, said she’s a budget expert and that the county’s process this year has been abnormal.
Monday night, the day before the budget vote, she said she had yet to see a final budget book. She said budget staff informed her they were still having technical issues with their system and that a final budget book is expected to be published in late March or early April.
“I am very concerned, and I don’t understand why I can’t get them to just print out from a system or from an Excel spreadsheet a budget,” Grant said. “They have yet to do that.”
Grant, who was elected in November 2024, said she received a final amended budget book last December, before she was even sworn in as a commissioner. The board approved amendments to the 2024-2025 biennium budget that year.
Looking ahead, Grant said she’d like to see more checks and balances in place between county budget staff and the Auditor’s Office financial team, a process that has been complicated this year.
During a Dec. 1 public hearing, Auditor Mary Hall said this budget cycle has been difficult due to the ongoing implementation of a new internal system called TC Connect.
“We are navigating a brand-new financial system, which has certainly been challenging,” Hall said. “I know in my office, it was difficult for us. In fact, we were unable to come up with a preliminary budget because we didn’t have access to the budget modules.”
State law requires the county auditor to present the preliminary budget report to the board. In an Oct. 8 email to the board, Hall said her office had a challenging time reviewing this report because they had limited access to budget data.
This led the Auditor’s Office to list many uncorrected errors in the report. For example, the email states there was an understatement of $180,000 in an office’s personnel budget. If left uncorrected, the office would start 2026 with $180,000 salary deficit that would have to be made up with salary savings or other spending reductions.
“Because of the significance of the errors and unsupported beginning balances, this preliminary budget should be regarded as limited in its reliability,” the email reads.
Furthermore, the email shows Hall requested the board direct the budget office to cooperate with her staff in several ways.
First, she asked that her office be given read-only access to the budget system. Second, she asked that the Budget Office work with her team to provide each office and department detailed budget information for review. Lastly, she requested that the county develop a memorandum of understanding to “ensure better partnership” in the development of an accurate and complete preliminary budget.
Hall referenced accuracy issues during the Dec. 1 public hearing.
“Unfortunately, we had to list all the errors we found,” Hall said. “We hope, moving into the (new) year, that we’re going to be seeing new revenue that wasn’t anticipated, which is what we expect, as well as ending up with a much higher ending fund balance than is currently in the budget.”
The Olympian asked to interview Hernandez, the county manager, about the budget process. In response, he shared a prepared statement.
“At no time were Budget staff directed to not work with elected offices, including the Auditor’s Office,” Hernandez wrote. “There were many meetings with Commissioners, the Auditor and her staff, County Manager, and Budget staff to work through a budget that required significant reductions. The Auditor’s requests for information were met in a timely and cooperative manner throughout. We look forward to continuing this collaboration with all-hands-on-deck and with the community at the forefront of every decision.”
In a Dec. 12 email to the board, Hernandez called The Olympian’s line of questioning “unfortunate.”
Menser said he understood there was some friction in the process this year, but he did not question the integrity of the budget.
“I don’t think it really affected, from the commissioners’ standpoint, the numbers we were seeing and the decisions we were making,” Menser said.
Commissioner Carolina Mejia said she did not share concerns about the budget being unreliable.
“I had multiple meetings with our budget team outside of just a board work session, just to go through the accuracy of the numbers and be sure that everything was up to par,” Mejia said.
Though errors arose in the budget process, Wayne Fournier said it has been continually reviewed and corrected as is expected before the final vote.
What’s going on with TC Connect?
TC Connect, a comprehensive financial and human resources system, proved a major challenge for the county during the budget process this year, each of the commissioners said.
“The inputs in the system were accurate,” Menser said. “It’s just that TC Connect has been a real bear for us. We’ve spent way more money on it than we originally were projected to have to spend.”
The county began implementing this new system in 2023 and officially launched it in 2024, according to a statement from county spokesperson Susan Melnyk. She did not respond to questions about how much the system and its implementation has cost the county.
At a Dec. 3 meeting, Hernandez said it’s “not unusual for organizations to take multiple years to transition” to a new system such as this.
“Things are better than when we first implemented, but it’s still a work in progress. That does not mean that the budget information is unreliable,” Hernandez said. “What it means is that it is taking a lot more time for staff to do the work that they were able to do in the other system quite easily.”
Hernandez said the system has difficulties generating data reports, but the data in the system is complete and can be “visually confirmed and manually pulled and pivoted” to verify accuracy.
“That’s important that we don’t communicate to the public from the staff side that the system has bad information, or we can’t get the information out,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said the county is working through a labor-intensive process to fix the system.
“We are one year into what could be a two-and-a-half-year process of change, but I know that the team is committed to working that through,” Hernandez said.
Melnyk said the TC Connect system is intended to provide clear dashboards, improve forecasting and planning and reduce administrative burdens.
The implementation of a system at this scale is “complicated,” Melnyk said. Stakeholders from across the county have been working together to streamline, test and improve the system as well as the county’s processes, she added.
“We’re incredibly proud of the staff who have been dedicated to modernizing our systems, even during significant budget challenges — work that will make us more efficient and better able to adapt to our community’s needs for years to come,” Melynk said.
Budget cycle tests new leaders, process
This budget cycle tested Hernandez and Budget Manager Summer Miller. Hernandez joined the county in April 2024 and formally announced Miller’s appointment to her current role in November 2024. That makes this their first biennial budget cycle in their respective roles.
This year also marked the first time a five-member board oversaw a biennial budget. The board expanded from three to five commissioners in 2024. Hernandez acknowledged these changes in his statement.
“With an expanded board, new commissioners, and dedicated staff in new roles across the organization, we’ve spent the past year working together to refine how we forecast and prepare for challenging economic times,” Hernandez said.
The county used economic indicators from the Washington State Department of Revenue, Office of Financial Management and compared trends from other counties across the state, he said.
“We’re developing a forward-looking budget process that ensures we are proactive rather than reactive with improved visibility into economic conditions, weakening sales tax returns, and reduced state and federal funding,” Hernandez said.
This year, the budget process started in January with a “record number of public work sessions” and regular communications with the county’s offices and departments, he said.
“To ensure an accurate budget, the numbers must adjust along with state and external economic indicators,” Hernandez said. “We recognized the need to have more accurate and realistic projections than we’ve had in the past and made our adjustments earlier than many other counties. As we continue to refine this process, the board will be able to make more timely and iterative adjustments.”
Menser said Hernandez and budget staff appeared to offer conservative estimates about the budget.
“It looked really Draconian early on because I think that was a function of the budget team just being cautious, conservative and not making assumptions as they get their feet under them and build a relationship with the board.”
Mejia said she felt for Hernandez and budget staff as they worked through process challenges.
“There are things that can be improved, always, but I think, just given the situation we were in this year, everyone did the best they could.”
The Board of County Commissioners will vote on the final budget and related items during their 2 p.m. regular business meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 16. The public can comment on any agenda items before votes are called.
