I attended the January 27, 2026, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
Commissioners Gohagan and Dougan were present.
The first agenda item was “Review of New County LEOP by EMA.”
Camden County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Chris McNail explained that the county’s Emergency Operations Plan needs to be updated every two years. His was the ninth revision of the plan. The changes were mostly updated acronyms and contact lists.
The Commission voted to approve this revision of the plan.
The second agenda item was “Surplus Funds request.”
This request was reviewed by the county’s attorney’s as well as the County Treasurer.
The Treasurer explained that surplus funds that aren’t claimed go to the school districts.
(To explain further, when a property is in arrears for property taxes for more than 3 years, it can be purchased at the tax auction or simply purchased if it goes unsold at auction. The property tax and penalties are deducted from the purchase amount and the remaining cash equity is held by the county as surplus funds. These surplus funds can be claimed, or “requested”, by the owner of the property who neglected to pay the property tax.)
The Commission approved this surplus funds request.
The final agenda item was “2026 Camden County Budget Appropriation Order.”
As the Commission prepared to approve the appropriations in the 2026 Budget (basically their planned expenditures), they had a few questions.
Commissioner Gohagan asked the County Auditor about a $934,000 transfer line coming out of the Sheriff’s budget? Auditor Laughlin responded that the transfer was mostly money going to E-911 Dispatch, but $169,000 of it was for debt service on an old HVAC project.
The Public safety General Government (PSGG) Fund will have $3.8 million in appropriations.
Auditor Laughlin explained that that outbound transfers and expenses are both listed as appropriations for each county fund.
Commissioner Dougan asked what the final number was for the county appropriations?
The 2026 budget will consist of $88,348,346 in total appropriations.
Dougan asked Laughlin what the 2025 appropriations were?
Laughlin said he did not recall that number. Commissioner Gohagan said the 2025 budget had $89 million in appropriations. Laughlin thought more about it and said it might have been $92 million…
Commissioner Dougan asked Laughlin if the county had covered its 2025 appropriations? Laughlin answered that they covered it with taxes and working cash (So…No.)
Gohagan confirmed that the expenditures were $92 million for 2025.
Commissioner Dougan asked Laughlin if he thought the county revenue was going to meet their budgeted $88 million amount? He said he wanted to pick his brain.
Laughlin explained that the revenue estimate was a forecast.
Commissioner Gohagan said that $87,998,986 was the estimated revenue for 2025.
Commissioner Dougan asked Laughlin how the rollover money was looking?
At this point, Laughlin was speaking very softly, but it sounded like he said, “It’s pretty tight.”
Commissioner Gohagan pointed out that Platte County puts its reserves into a separate reserve fund for its general reserve instead of keeping the money in its general revenue fund like Camden County does. He had a printout of their fund structure to show to Laughlin.
The total Sheriff budget for 2026 was 15.934 million.
The commissioners approved the 2026 budget appropriations unanimously.
Commissioner Dougan noted that if revenue was underperforming mid-year, they would re-open the budget at that time.
And that was that.
And there is still not an officially published 2026 Camden County Budget. Once that is available, I promise I will write an entire tale of the adventure that has been this budget procedure. I also might mention that I will make certain Among the Dogwoods merchandise items available for those discerning Camden County citizens who want to make their neighbors know that they are politically aware.
Among the Dogwoods 