Chatham County Commissioners will consider moving $650,000 in contingency funds to the Sheriff’s FY 2026 budget due to an overage in expenditures on a single contract.
The agenda item is scheduled to be discussed during the March 13, 2026 Board of Commissioner’s meeting and, according to county documents, pertains to a contract for equipment to be used in the Sheriff’s Office and in jail operations.
On July 18, 2025, the Board approved the master lease agreement for Axon body cameras, tasers and unlimited cloud storage. During the FY2026 budget process the Chatham County Sheriff budgeted funds for the Axon contract while they were still in negotiations for final equipment needs and amounts. The final contract price came in higher than initially budgeted. The Finance Director requests Board approval to transfer $650,000 from General Fund Contingency to increase the Sheriff operating budget $319,089 and the Detention Center operating budget $330,911. Unexpended COLA and Merit contingency are available to cover this expenditure.
A contingency fund is a dedicated, separate reserve of money set aside to cover unexpected expenses, emergencies, or urgent, unplanned costs throughout the fiscal year. In Chatham County, the fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30. For reference, Chatham County accounted for $350,000 in Contingency Funds for the General Fund in FY 2026 and $150,000 in Contingency Funds for Special Service Districts in FY 2026.
Sold as a Cost-Savings
According to paperwork from the county from the July 18, 2025 meeting when the lease agreements were approved, the county approved the consolidation of lease agreements with Axon and the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, the Chatham County Police Department, the Counter Narcotics Team, and the Chatham County Fire Department for the long-term goal of a cost savings to the county. The leases for the county departments were approved and the Sheriff’s Office lease was approved individually with Tasers and unlimited cloud storage included.
County-wide across all four departments and agencies, the lease agreement was projected to cost $1,526,719.87.
County documents show that the bid provided by the Sheriff’s Office to commissioners included “Axon Body Worn Cameras with cases, software, docking stations, licenses for Evidence.com, unlimited storage of digital evidence for Axon devices, TASERS with holster and battery pack.” Meeting notes from the county commission also show that the estimate accounted for the new divisions, such as the traffic enforcement unit, and new courthouse staff that had been hired. The newly negotiated contract with the Sheriff’s Office was supposed to begin August 1, 2025.
But the actual contract price for the Sheriff’s Office after negotiations came in $650,000 more than the budgeted amount initially requested by the Sheriff’s Office for a total of $1,134,837.50 for year one and $1,137,790.62.
Chart as displayed in Chatham County Commission meeting Agenda Packet.
The county documents do not show contract issues with any of the other county departments that consolidated agreements.
The March 13, 2026 meeting will take place at 9:30 a.m. at the Old Courthouse on Bull Street on the 2nd Floor. All meetings are open to the public.
