PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County’s Central Services director presented an overview of his department’s 2026 budget to the Board of County Commissioners.
The presentation on Monday was given to inform the board of the department’s expected budget and did not include any motions.
The budget for Central Services, along with all other departments, is expected to be adopted in December.
The department, which is composed of Facilities and Information Services — the county’s computing systems, geographic information system (GIS) and records management, presented more than $5.7 million in expenditures.
Central Services operates largely on an internal cost-recovery model, wherein it is paid for its services to other departments, director Shawn Frederick said.
Capital improvement plans are funded by Real Estate Excise Taxes (REET) 1 and 2, he said. Construction and renovation are funded from the county’s capital improvement fund, he added.
Of the $5.7 million in expenditures, more than $2.5 million would go to salaries and benefits of the department’s 28 budgeted full-time equivalent (FTE) employees.
“There is a vacant position for an administrative assistant position that we’re currently recruiting for,” Frederick said.
Information Services, which encompasses all county computing systems, GIS and public records management, has 10 FTE positions and two records management clerk hires, Frederick said. Salaries and benefits are estimated at just more than $1.4 million.
Central Services shares costs with the Jefferson County Assessor’s Office and pays for 50 percent of a GIS position and splits the cost of a database technician with Jefferson County Public Health, Frederick said.
Supplies for Information Services are budgeted at $80,950. Other services and charges are expected to cost about $1.03 million, and capital outlay is expected to cost $563,902.
Among other capital outlaw expenses, the department would spend $109,500 on desktop computers, $67,420 on laptop computers and $37,757 on printers.
The county is moving from a four-year computer replacement to five, which should save costs in future years, Frederick said.
“Unfortunately, that does nothing for us in 2026,” Frederick said.
“To get that model in place, we still have to move forward with that replacement. Primarily, what that will do for us is eliminate the last of the computers that still have spinning hard drives that allow us to move to a 100 percent solid state hard drive environment, which has fewer maintenance issues.”
The budget included $180,096 for copiers.
“$180,000 in new copiers in 2026? Wow!” Commissioner Greg Brotherton said.
The line item does not include maintenance.
The county retains copiers for six years, Frederick said.
Frederick noted that technology is getting more expensive and that the county would need to increase innovation to keep costs down. He said he’s looking for ways to avoid redundancies.
“We have lots of programs that are either redundant because they’re legacy systems that have already been replaced — in at least one scenario by multiple (programs),” Frederick said. “Or they’re duplicative programs where we have multiple programs that can do the same work.”
Facilities would pay almost $1.05 million in salaries and benefits to eight FTEs and four clerk hires in 2026.
Central Services expects to request $90,000 for supplies and $650,701 for other services and charges for facilities, according to Fredericks presentation.
The budget included 17 construction and renovation projects ranging from a $600,000 Port Hadlock shop roof replacement to a courthouse woodwork restoration with an estimated cost of $6,500. In all, construction and renovation projects are estimated to cost almost $2.2 million in 2026.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com
