Welcome everyone.

Um today's April 6th, 2026, the eighth meeting of the 27th council will come to order.

All counselors are present this evening.

Counselor Rogers will be joining us shortly.

We will now go into a moment of silence and the pledge.

Madam President.

Yes.

Counselor Vice President Champine.

Yes, tonight's moment of silence is gonna be in honor of a former district eight coalition president, uh, Mr.

Bob Fass, who passed away recently.

He had Mr.

Bob Fast wore a lot of uh hats within our community and worked very closely with me uh when I became a counselor uh with parks and rec too.

Uh he was very adamant about not only about his neighborhood, but also about the uh the park that lived by uh Oso Grande Park that he lived by.

So please thank you.

Thank you, Vice President.

Vice President Champagne.

Thank you, Madam President.

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The council will take a break at approximately 7 p.m.

this evening if needed.

Uh with regard to decorum in the chambers, we want tonight's proceedings to be as civil and respectful as possible.

Please do not make any personal attacks and please no applause, snapping, or any other outbursts during the meeting.

The president will provide one warning to anyone causing a disruption.

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If continued disruptions occur, the president may recess the meeting in order to uh restore order, and if necessary, may clear the chambers of persons participating in that disturbance.

This meeting will go a lot smoother if we are all respectful of one another.

This time we have administration question and answer period.

Counselors, do we have any questions for the administration?

Councilor Lewis.

Thank you, Mr.

Vice President.

Um I know this isn't a budget hearing, but uh um since the administration you know sent the budget down and did a press release and and uh you know introduced uh the the administration's budget, just had a few you know comments and some some questions for you all about it uh and just some things that have been you know written about it in the paper.

Obviously, we're gonna take the next few months and and uh and work on the budget, but uh Mr.

Will and you're representing the administration here tonight.

Uh council president counselor lewis, yes.

Is the CFO here?

Uh Council President and Counselor Lewis, she is not.

Okay, no problem.

We'll keep her busy, I'm sure, in the next next month here.

Um so Mr.

Willand, the the uh I mean what was what we read in the press and really how you all uh characterize the uh the budget that you sent to us this last week.

Wheeland the the uh I mean what was what we read in the press and really how you all characterize the uh the budget that you sent to us this last week um it uh you you talk about a 35 million dollar and and really how it was reported is that um the the budget that we're it was a cut you know that we're we're spending less uh than we were the year before and yet you also have a uh a 2.7 million dollar uh I'm sorry two point seven percent increase we're showing a projected increase of two point seven percent uh you just estimate that at about 25 million dollars in new revenues uh this year over last year and if you're you know saving about you know thirty five million dollars or not spending um another thirty five million dollars uh over last year which is how this is characterized um as I as I look through the budget and your proposal you know when when I hear that I would want to see um really what would be about a 50 to 60 million dollar uh reduction in either revenues that that revenues would be reduced by about that amount and we're spending it every everybody but that we have or about sixty million dollars that would go to the the fund reserve um but that's that's certainly not what it is in fact uh what if we have a 2.7 million or 2.7 percent increase year over year um and what it looks like to me and also an increase to our operational budget uh and so it it looks like that and it is that we have more money than we did last year um and we're really just moving some some money around so some questions for you um when you say 35 million in net savings how much of that is actual cuts versus moving money between funds council president and uh counselor lewis I'd have to look for those numbers and get that information for you okay my my look at it is it's not it's not all actual spending reductions in fact if you look at the overall budget there is no spending reduction I mean we're we're spending more than we did last year we have more revenue than we did last year and we're spending more than we did last year.

Would you know of that 35 million how much comes from the general fund the council president opinion and counselor Lewis I'll have to get that answer for you.

Okay.

So we do have our direct I guess I would say is is the core operating budget the general fund is it being reduced by 35 million dollars council president and counselor lewis who do have our directive Madam President and uh counsel Lewis yes we did have general fund reductions from the prior year but there's there's more in the general fund than there was last year.

The total amount is more in the general fund than there was last year.

I mean we can go over in detail all right so we'll just be some of the details and and and I'm sure we'll go through this in our budget hearings but I would expect that whether if the C CFO is here and whoever put that in this budget I mean these are some some very very general questions that we should just be able to answer off the top of our heads here.

If we're saving 35 million dollars why are the why why would the general fund revenues be going up I mean the general fund revenues aren't being reduced they're going up Madam President and Councilor Lewis we did take cuts to the general fund from the prior year.

There were it's just not what I'm seeing so I mean we'll I guess we'll we'll we'll dive into that so just want to be clear that the 35 million and in net savings it's not all cuts it includes reallocations changes across other funds which is why the core funding in the general fund can still increase and so all that to say is that we have we have projected revenues of another 25 million more than last year and when I look at this budget there there is no reduction in spending whatsoever we're we're we're spending more than we were last year.