All right, everyone, we're gonna get started tonight's uh budget and finance committee meeting.

Uh so uh Mr.

Clerk, do you mind running the attendance for today's meeting for the record?

Okay, Ms.

Model is on the phone, you scroll out here and everyone is in attendance from the chair.

Let the record also reflect we have uh council president Napoli, uh Council Persons Bender and uh Santos.

So uh so I guess we can get started with the first thing on the agenda.

So it is our financial reports.

Uh I believe the administration is here to describe those.

We have some from February and December, so yeah.

Please feel free, Director Patel.

Thank you.

Good evening, council persons.

Um so on on March 17th, um finance department circulated the uh February 28th, 2026 and December 31st, version three, which is the final version for 2025 year um monthly budget to actual reports to city council and the controller as required by our city administrative code.

Um as of December 31st, 2025, year to date journal fund revenues, um net of NIS, which is a neighborhood improvement zone uh payments total to 147.8 million.

While the actual revenues were 152.2 million.

I'm providing you, this is the first year a detail of NIS revenue because uh unizday and NIS and uh that conversation has come a few times during our um budget and finance committee meeting, and we have a NISDA meeting cut coming up.

So I just wanted to give you some um facts, uh numbers facts so you can relate um to that conversation that's coming up in uh in a few weeks.

So City of Allentown's total NIS certification amount for the year 2025 was 4.3 million, and uh it comprised of uh tax and fees, and the taxes that it included that are included in the NIS certifications are earned income tax, local services tax, business privilege tax, business license fee, and realty transfer tax.

So the total amount we certified for the for the 2025 year was four four million three hundred and fifty-five thousand five hundred and four dollars and four cents.

So with the NIS certification, the Barkheimer, which is our collector for the Lehigh County, it it escrols funds for the um city throughout the year, and they had an escrow one million seven hundred and seventy-five thousand four hundred and eighty dollars and fifty-one cents for the city.

So they send that payment directly to the department, Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

And after we um came up with our um certified amount, uh which is done by um the staff here, the budget team, and um Martina Cell and and Bobby have worked on that for 2025 year, and uh they came up with a 4.3 million amount.

And so City um on March 2nd made a payment to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue of 2,580,000 23.53 cents.

So that's how we we came to 4.3 million.

I'll give you some um I'll pause actually if anyone has any questions on the NIS numbers.

I'm just curious, are any of those available otherwise in any of the documents that you've provided tonight?

Or um no, I I don't believe um it's in any of the documents, but if you see the February report, February um end of the month report, uh, for the transparency sake and after having a conversation with controller, we are reporting uh NIS liability.

So it's technically not an expenditure, it's a liability.

So we are recording that as a negative number right underneath the tax type or the fee type.

So if you see the earned income tax, you'll see a negative number underneath that, and that that's an amount we are estimating based on the previous year.

Previous year is 2025.

We are estimating amount for the 2026 year based on the 2025 number.

So you'll see that change in the reporting structure for 2020 um 2026.

But besides that, if you need any granules, these are massive files that again, Martina and Bobby have worked on this year.

It has a lot of sensitive information on there.

No, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Sure.

All right, so I'll continue with then the rest of the general fund data.

So some facts.

72% of the general fund revenues are generated from various taxes, right?

City real estate tax, earned income tax, local services tax, deed transfer tax, and business privilege tax.

14% is generated from intergovernmental sources, and that includes grants, state aid for pension, casino fees, fire and police training.

And the remainder, uh 8% is generated from charges for services that we be assessed on various things.

That's on the revenue side.

General fund expenditures totaled 93% of the adjusted budgeted amount of 154.7 million.

That reflected savings of 4% compared to the same time last year.

The leading categories for the savings are service and charges and materials and supplies.

Now there are adjusted expenditure for general fund of we budget with vacancy factor, and our vacancy factor for 2025 was 2.4 million.

So our net expenditure was 152.3 million.

And of that, 72% of the general fund expenditures are allocated to personnel.

So in dollar amounts, it's 109.7 million is the personnel cost.

I also have some facts on the public safety premium pay.

So we closed the year 2025 with the police fire, pretty much the similar, just over $3 million, and EMS premium pay was just over a million.

I will go over the other funds.

The other funds include risk, solid waste, stormwater fund, golf, rental unit, and building code.

I had walked you through all of the differences, and then version three includes the final payments that we made to vendors and any any other journal entry reclassifications that we had to make for those funds.

So I'll start off with the risk fund.

Risk fund revenue and expenditures.

We closed with in line with the year end expectations.

Now I do like to remind council that our health care costs came much higher.

So we had done two budget transfers in total of about $6 million to bring the health care cost, you know, to make those payments.

The solid waste fund revenues are in line with your end expectations at 23.9 million, and expenditures reflected savings of 2 million at 23.9 million.

So both came to about similar 23.9 million.

Stormwater fund revenues stronger by 2%.

So they came in at 6.2, and expenditures are reflecting savings, so they came in at 6.1 million.

The golf fund revenues are in line with year end expectations, that's 2.7 million, and expenditures reflecting savings of 19% at 2.5 million.

And their adjusted budget was 3.1 million.

The rental unit fund revenues are stronger by 19%.

So I would like to remind council that the rental unit fund billing is done at the end of the last quarter of the year.

So when you see strength in revenue, is that the that revenue strength is used for the following year's expenditures for first two quarters.

And the expenditures reflected savings of 3% at $2.9 million.

The building code fund, which was in one new fund for 2025 for a CED department.

The revenues reached this was a new fund, so we're we're just learning the activities of that fund at 4.2 million, which was 158% higher than what we had budgeted.

Budget was for 2.7 million.

While expenditures total at 90% or 2.5 million.

So that's the activities on all of the uh funds for 2025.

The rest of the data I have for 2025 are on the investments, and um again um this were provided earlier also.

There's a minor change in how the year closed.

So the the general fund cash position on December 31st, 2025 is 39.8 million.

And majority of the funds are with Pligate, uh, which is a um Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust, uh, which is a safer investment uh for us, um, and 35 million of the 37 is in the term investment or was in the term investment, and uh 2.1 million was in Pligit Prime, which is more like um a money market, and the plight class, and the uh APY was 3.91 for that.

And the maturity dates for the investment term investments are listed there for your reference, and um and the investment return.

The return yields were between 3.74 percent and 4.35%, and the remainder of the funds that we use for uh payroll and vendor payments are um with TD bank yielding 3%, and we close the year uh with that at 2.6 million.

So that's the report for um the third and final report for um 2025.

I'll pause for any questions we have before I walk you through the February 28th uh 2026 numbers.

Uh before I take any comments from the diasp does the controller have anything to add to the report based off of their staff a very good job, Mr.

Shape.

It's always uh exciting in a challenge to get the NIS certification done.

I think they did it.

Nail right on the head with that, and we follow the crowd of them and the hard work that we all do there.

Um alluded to um she said it at um in 25 just meeting in 26.

I'm sure she'll go over more is the NIS money.

We'll see the liability posted against the revenue variety things.

So I'm not gonna account.

So you know, I think liabilities and expense, but clearly not all it's just the liability.

And this was not particularly clear to the public and the prior council how this was handled.

But now it is.

So we can see what this liability is.

We can account for going forward in our own you know, budget calculations.

I think it certainly speaks well of the administration to make that very clear for everybody in the state.

So it will get used more and more as we go through 26.

And we can track it for months.

Thank you, sir.

Absolutely.

No, thank you.

Um I guess there's just one thing, and I I know it's probably something we could have to review with the question.

I know it's kind of on the spot here, but you mentioned the building code fund and then the strength there, it's kind of like a new fund uh for us.

So I I know I'd be curious to understand a little bit more about that 58 percent uh as compared to our expenditures, but um, yeah, I'll I can follow up with that.

I don't know if we have the answers for that right now.

So yeah, that was the only thing that really stood out.

You guys have anything at all for uh last year's report.

Okay, we'll make sure you we get that detail for you and and break it down uh where the uh additional 58% came from.

Sure, thank you.

All right, so I'll begin with the um end of uh February report for you.

Um again, it's so we are uh being transparent and um listing the NIS um activity as a liability on the February monthly report and the general fund revenues section.

You'll see that um listed as a as a negative amount.

So general fund revenues net of um estimated NIS liability were 19.6 million um representing 13 percent of the um projected revenue based on our estimation models.

So we came in um at 13 percent, and expenditures were also uh at 13 percent at 20.1 million.

Now NIS liability again is is reflected.

So if you look at the report, you'll see as under each tax type and fee listed as a negative number.

Um the housing um, let me continue with the other fund.

Risk fund, solid waste fund, stormwater fund, golf fund, rental unit fund, building code fund.

All this is still early in the year, so I have listed them all combined and agreed there for you.

But the revenues and expenditures are between one to 16% of the budgeted amount.

And the housing fund, which now includes a reality transfer tax, so that 50% of the revenue we received for reality transfer is recorded in the housing fund, and that amount for February was 147,000.

Police and fire are pretty much just about shy of 300,000, and EMS is about 105,000 for the year.

Next, I have the investment activity.

So end of February, the general fund cash position is 40.1 million.

We begin just started receiving some of the revenues from the billings done for the city real estate tax, and um earned income tax revenues start trickling in as well.

March is our stronger month, and then we close higher revenues and from uh city real estate and earned income tax in April when the discount discounted date, which is April 5th, and earned income tax uh due date is April 15th.

Um general fund uh cash um investments of 30.2 million with um a plight, and um 30 million of that is in term investment, term uh investment dates and maturity um amount with the return on investment is listed there for your reference, and the investment yield uh is between 3.74 percent and 3.95%.

And um since this is still early in the year and the revenues coming in, uh we had almost 9.8 million with TD Bank, and this is our liquid uh assets used for uh paying payroll and when making vendor payments, and the yield we are currently receiving from TD Bank is three three percent APY.

And that's my report um for end of February 2026.

Thank you.

Any comments on the diaspora any public comment?

I know I see a lot of finance faces, so uh I believe that's pretty much it.

So thank you so much, Director Patel.

Thank you.

Um so I guess at this point in the program.

We're gonna shift over into a budget process review.

So this is a continuation of the kind of series we've had going, uh following up on the resolution that was passed back in January and the process to review our city budget.

So first and foremost, I want to just highlight the efforts from everyone, um, both from uh the clerk from our aid dentists and from the different department heads, the different people who just met for interviews, for surveys, just all this input was extremely critical uh for understanding our current process and understanding in what ways we can look to try to assist uh the city as we continue with our budget process in the future.

Uh so Genesis, if you don't mind get us getting us started here.

Of course.

There we go.

So this is a very quick um background on the budget process review, and then councilman Pungo and Bender are gonna present the final findings and recommendations.

But for background, on January 21st, 2026, council approved a resolution that intended to review the city's budget process to establish procedures for developing and adopting a budget.

Why, you know, the recent budget cycle exposed process challenges, lack of clarity in certain areas, and council wanted to identify improvements.

So to summarize that resolution, Section 802 of the charter requires submission of a balanced budget and capital program under the provisions that on or before 90 days prior to the next fixed school year, department heads are to submit a proposed budget and capital program to the mayor 75 days prior to the ensuing fiscal year.

75 days prior to the ensuing fiscal year, the mayor will submit a budget to city council, a capital program and a message.

And that proposed balanced budget and capital program will be in a form that the mayor deems desirable unless otherwise required by city council.

The city home rule charter adopted by Allentown voters originally included a December 15th default budget.

Should city council fail to adopt a veto proof budget by December 15th, the mayor's original proposed balance budget would become the official budget of the city for the ensuing fiscal year.

Allentown voters via a referendum remove the automatic budget default process, preventing a tax increase from going into effect by default, and requiring council and the administration to adopt a budget by December 31st.

The voters also approve changing the supermajority requirement that five members are needed for a tax or fee increase and reduce the needed votes to four.

The referendum did not account for procedures, provisions, nor closure if council and the administration did not adopt an annual budget by December 31st.

So the resolution resolves ultimately that council persons bender and Pungo would work to conduct a targeted review and analysis of the city's budgetary process.

And that happens in three phases.

So the first part was a review of the development and adoption of the city's budget on January 28th.

The second was a comparison of the city's budget process to those of other municipalities, model city charters and practices related to adoption, and that was at the February 25th budget and finance committee.

And then lastly, today identifying the procedural impacts that occur when budgetary agreements are not reached and evaluating options to clearly define and address those gaps moving forward.

And that review shall include the collection of input through surveys or other means from city council members, city administration, and employees involved in the budget process, the controller, mayor's office, and incorporate all of that feedback, suggestion and recommendations.

Thank you, Genesis.

So I guess to kind of summarize some of the findings of those individual meetings for anyone who maybe is watching this back or anyone else who wasn't available for some of those meetings.

During our first meeting, we reviewed the administration's uh kind of budget cycle and understanding that uh the budget that process that is currently in place essentially starts uh in late spring, essentially early summer during that uh June time front time frame where the administration kind of gets together, starts developing those budget priorities.

Uh they develop that kind of starter guideline by July department heads get involved and start developing their budgets really in the month of August and into September, they really start cleaning up that budget and really what it's gonna look like.

Um of course we know that the budget's presented in October.

Uh so you know, we wanted to kind of really understand that timeline back when we had that meeting in early January, just so we can understand okay, what could we do to further assist this process if if we need to to get it done earlier to do more?

Uh, and and that kind of gave us that intro to how the city goes through and approves its budget.

Um, so then our second meeting, uh, we got into understanding, okay.

We know how our city does it, what can we do to compare ourselves to other cities?

So, you know, we all kind of have to work together, we don't suffer in silence here.

So, how can we uh improve our process?

So we looked at uh the different cities that are either comparable to us either by uh the class of city that they are, or even just by understanding their budget process, uh, and we compiled all those findings, and that's on the next slide, uh, where we could identify some of the different keys.

So they had adoption deadlines, they had uh defined amendment cutoff dates, some of them this is not necessarily for all.

Um, and you know, there are some cases where there is restricted spending authority and uh some items where there are specific provisions for a mayor veto for council veto, uh as but most importantly, what we found is that there was an explicitly defined scenario uh for all of that.

So for passing for you know, the situation where if a budget is not passed, what happens?

And if we go here, we can kind of see that comparison from different cities, whether uh that's the veto, uh, whether there is a specific type of veto, whether it's a line item or not, uh, as well as if there is a default budget, and if so, kind of what what happens at what point and if there's no default budget, what happens uh for you know a closure or a shutdown or something like that.

So what essentially, like we said, our provision, like you covered pretty well, Genesis at the beginning, we do not have an explicitly defined uh provision in our charter for what happens if we do not approve a budget.

Uh so that was a huge key finding because some places, even if they don't have a default budget, they at least have some sort of provision that says, okay, if we don't approve, then this is what happens.

People don't, you know, paychecks don't go out or no spending can be done.

So that's kind of where we found we were lacking in that sense.

Um then, of course, tonight is this review of okay, we understand what other cities do, we understand what our process is.

Now we can kind of synthesize everything that we've heard from the people in the administration, department heads, uh, the survey info uh and our comparison to other cities, and what can we do to get to an agreeable solution to help us overcome some of those situations.

And so obviously, tonight we can't vote and institute or create any process, but the budget and finance committee, uh, our goal through this resolution is to provide recommendations.

So tonight we'll review some of the findings of those different interactions and ultimately cover the several recommendations that we have that will be presented to council for potential action to help us address our budget process.

And with that, I'll let uh councilperson Binder take it away with some of the findings.

Thank you, Councilperson Pongo.

Um I did want to echo a thank you to all of the department heads, to the clerk to to Mike into Genesis and to Councilperson Pongo.

We we um had the benefit of being able to get dropped into this, at this learn a lot, at least through this process.

Um it was it was really, really good exposure, and um, yeah, we got a lot of meaningful data out of this.

So, as we previously stated, uh, when the resolution was passed, uh it declared that we had to conduct a survey with stakeholders who deal with the budget process and every department.

Um councilperson Pungo and I then conducted in-person meetings with each department to review the findings and solicit feedback on the budget process.

Together with the clerk's office, we've outlined the following findings.

So we broke this down into two sections.

One's council process findings and the other is administrative findings.

So, first and foremost, in this, uh, the amendment deadline came up uh pretty frequently and and through the survey process, just for clarity, that was a submitted survey that got um feedback from everyone, and then we followed up with a question and answer type of scenario.

So, in this case, 70% said there was a strong desire for earlier input to to avoid um late state changes.

Um for pre-meeting question submissions, um 60% indicated uh inefficiencies in real-time questioning and um last-minute clarifications.

So, this is the type of thing where um we're submitting questions to finance or to specific departments from the dias here without the opportunity of um pre-identifying those numbers.

Um supported better tracking and flow um follow-up on questions through that budget question and answer process.

Uh 60% supported a more structured public discussion in addition to uh standard committee processes.

So, this would be a potential recommendation we're gonna note in the next couple slides.

And 70% suggested earlier alignment on priority budgets, uh, priorities before budgets are uh developed.

So those are all some things that came from the council process.

The next process uh for the admin process, um, budget guidance um from the administration.

70% of the respondents indicated that earlier guidance would improve the budget process.

So this would be uh starting that uh dialogue a little bit earlier.

From a um uh department budget development approach, 6565% expressed that the current approach needs some improvement.

Related to internal budget communications, um, 80% said budget communications could be improved.

And related to touch points with council, uh 60% wanted more constant engagement and fewer changes.

So this takes us to what is going to be our next slide, which is really our recommendation side.

Um so as councilman uh person Pongo uh stated, this isn't tonight a declar or uh an opportunity for us to change anything.

Um we're really just starting this process to provide some recommendations.

So, first and foremost in this, um, some of the recommendations could require some charter amendment changes.

Um one of the things what we looked at and we saw in other municipalities was um moving the date of the uh budget adoption a little bit earlier.

It was on the 15th, as Genesis had noted.

Um voters moved it to the 31st.

Um, our recommendation based on all of the information that we've gotten to date would be to move this to the first Wednesday in December.

This would give a lot more capacity for conversations and back and forth between council and the mayor's office.

So we're not nearly at the deadline like we were in this past January.

The other, and this is I know potentially a little bit touchy because voters did vote to say we don't want to have a default budget.

But I think one of the challenges without having any closure mechanism for the city of Allentown is that we'd put us in the state that we were in in January.

So one of these would be to advance a charter referendum to re-ask it and re-engage with the voters to see about in reinstating a default budget provision, but noting that that wouldn't allow for a tax increase without council's approval.

So this would be somewhat of a go-between with what happened a couple years ago with a significant tax increase.

This would hopefully address that.

Part of the supporting information for why these changes would be taking place.

One was uh defined budget timeline.

So uh 75% or sorry, 70% of the people cited that timing was a challenge, and that's what caused where uh the situation we ran into.

Um a fixed final vote date, 60% supported a clear endpoint to that process.

Um 80% highlighted uh frequent last minute revisions and a lack of structure as part of one of the challenges.

Uh 65% noted some uncertainty around what happens if no budget is passed, which is the scenario we ran into.

And 60% supported safeguards around major financial decisions and related to tax implications.

So the other things that we can do, was I supposed to be these or I got to here.

I'll take it.

I'll let council person binder get a quick break.

Um so the uh we kind of structured this, there's different levels to action, of course, like we said, all recommendations.

So those are like two larger processes that would require uh council to put forth a resolution and get something started to do a charter referendum.

Um so that would take an action from council uh as well as action from the voters to institute something there.

Uh these next recommendations are different things that can actually be done through uh you know council instituting uh you know any ordinances to their own rules uh as well as just standard uh operating procedure changes.

So the first one is setting amendment deadline and the standards for amendments.

Uh so part of the process we got input from different departments that um as these different amendments potentially start, obviously it is a conversation between council and the administration.

Um, but having a lot of those linger too far into December creates difficulty, not just in getting the budget approved, but also turning over the budget for the next year.

So let's say under our current rules, if we get an amendment added last minute and halfway through December, we approve the budget late December.

That means that our financial department only has but a couple days uh over a holiday uh to pretty much get the budget ready to go to start on January 1st.

Um so adding a deadline would give us that opportunity to say, okay, we know any major amendments are going to be resolved by this point, and at that point it's just ironing out the details of whether or not the budget's going to be approved.

So the proposed recommendation there is that all council amendments be submitted by the second regular council meeting in November.

Uh, that ensures uh and also ensuring that all amendments are revenue neutral or included include identified savings.

So the other concept there is that uh any amendments that are proposed uh should try to um basically not add on to the expense to the general fund so that way we are not uh incurring a deficit there and having to pull from the general fund.

So we are instituting a balanced budget by identifying how we're offsetting that.

So like let's say we want to add any costs to the budget, we could then um identify saying, hey, look, I think we can reduce the budget from such and such area or such and such department uh in order to make up for that.

Uh and that's you know, again, more so the recommendation obviously the amendment process would allow that communication between council and administration to happen to determine whether or not that's exactly how it happens.

But the goal is to ensure that any amendments either reduce the expenditures for the city or offset them.

Um the next one is standardizing the council question process.

Again, we kind of reviewed uh that as under the the findings of the survey.

So, what can we do to ensure that questions are being delivered to the different department heads, the finance department uh in a way that's consistent so that way we know, hey, I'm gonna get this question at a meeting.

We're gonna have to cover this or provide these answers.

So this one is just more so uh kind of reviewing that process specifically with council to determine how exactly that happens.

And it kind of ties into this next one.

Uh but the goal is to essentially make it a standard if it's you know two days before a council meeting, if it's five days, I think that that still needs to be developed.

Uh, but just creating some sort of standard where if we're going to have a meeting on the budget, we're providing questions early enough so we we get uh proper answers and the public can have that opportunity to hear those answers.

Um the next one is tied to this, where it's exploring a possible shared budget QA tool.

So the the concept for this comes from you know, questions can come up at any time, and even having some sort of standardized process process where we're asking these questions in advance, or at least providing them to the administration in advance, having a place where that can all live and all of us kind of provide to that would allow us to understand what's been asked.

Maybe we're not asking redundant questions, maybe it spurs other questions.

So that one specifically, I know we want to review and just ensure everything's kosher with that.

There's some additional questions to that, but we do see some value in having a collaborative tool where the administration and council can share a place to ask questions.

Um priorities early on.

This was actually a very big one.

So what we felt that we heard when meeting with different departments was you know, we want to help achieve whatever initiatives council would like to put forth, but in order to do that, we need to know what they are.

And as we highlighted through the process, this kind of starts in May and June, the budget process at large.

Department heads don't start until roughly around July, and then the budget's presented in October, but by that point it's been refined to the point where changes are a lot harder to accommodate at that point.

So we would like to, you know, recommend that council develop some sort of process to uh allow the administration to receive a list or some memorandum on council's priorities, things that we'd like to see the city do, programs we'd like to see expanded or adopted, um, and allow the department heads to to see that, understand that, and and potentially consider that as they build their budget.

So that way it's not something we're adding on in October, but it's something that they're hearing maybe in June, and then they can actually build their budget towards that.

Um and the next section here are some additional recommendations, kind of things that still need to be maybe fleshed out a little bit more, but still being recommended.

So uh developing a budget document outline outlining the process and legal requirements.

Uh so the idea here is that we have a slew of different resources for our budget.

So there are things that live in the home rule charter, there are things that live in the code, there are things that are just in council's rules.

And if we adopt any of these, they are they could just be rules.

So we also recommend that once this process is determined that we create some sort of document or guideline saying this is the budget process, this is when the budget is submitted, this is when amendments are due, uh, this is when you know council should present their priorities to the department heads.

Uh, this is when you do such and such process, and it could also include like a frequently asked questions area.

So if there's ever concerns about where the budget process is, we can just know that this is our standard.

And it would be uh reviewed every year to ensure that it's up to date if there's any changes.

Uh the other recommendation is an annual dedicated review of the five-year fiscal uh financial plan.

Uh so the thought there it's either first or second quarter of the year.

Um the thought there is uh oftentimes we're reviewing the budget process.

We're very focused on that year uh and and in the craziness of all of that, maybe we don't get to like really look at what is the city's five-year plan.

So uh finding a meeting uh either before the budget season or right after, where we can kind of talk about that and ensure that the alignment of where the administration sees the city going in five years, aligns to where council sees the city going in five years, and that the public understands it and can comment on it as well.

And the final recommendation was reviewing the budget book format and deliverable.

Our budget book essentially is this piece of documentation that has been added on to from council, from administrations, things have changed, things have been added, uh, and it's you know, why we deliver it the way we do, it seems like no one truly knows.

Uh, and but we just know that this is what we did, so this is what we're gonna keep doing.

So, one of the recommendations is or recommendations is what can we do to potentially uh revise that budget book format if it's a lot of work for these departments to put together a substantial narrative and this and that, and maybe we don't need this section of the narrative or we don't need this specific graph.

So, what can we do uh that still illustrates what the budget is gonna be and what the expectations are so that's that recommendation, uh and I believe that's essentially the list of all our recommendations.

I know it's a lot.

We've kind of been scraping through all the data to kind of uh maximize it.

Um so I'll pass it on to Genesis.

Can you just talk a little bit about some of our next steps?

Yeah, so this essentially completes the items that were outlined in the resolution that was passed in January.

And so, in terms of next steps is to review all of these options with council and have continued conversations and dialogue between council and the administration, do a legal analysis on any items that council would like to further pursue.

And depending on the option that council would like to move forward, it would again require further dialogue with the administration.

But if there is a charter reform option, that would be an ordinance for introduction.

Um that would go to the voters.

Um, if it's something to amend the council rules, then it would be a resolution.

And if we're looking to change the council standard operating procedures, then it would just be an ad or a change to that.

And so that's what we're looking at in terms of next steps.

Thank you.

Uh, so that is what we had for this specific presentation.

I'd love to open it up to see if we have any comments, any thoughts, um, either up here on the dice or from anyone.

True, Mr.

Controller.

I think that this is a great product.

Um control words all about process, and certainly it's all about process.

So I like to see that.

The one thing that confuses me, and I'm sure you guys have noticed this as well.

Um, is council can't agree on a budget.

You go to the default button.

But you can't go to the default budget if it has a tax agreement.

You gotta square that.

Because if the original budget has a tax agreements, there has to be a process there to strike out tax increase, but also to address spending tax increase hopefully but otherwise, it's an interesting idea, but not particularly work.

Yeah, would you like to think as part of that?

That's one of the discussions we had is in this would questions like from a legal perspective, but do we go to a default with what the previous years was, and then what does that look like?

Is it kind of this continuation there of that budget while we get some sort of within that 30-day period to resolve it?

I completely agree with you, and I think some of those are really making the recommendations to council saying we do need to find closure in this, and then legally, how do we how do we go about doing that?

What is the appetite for that with council?

But I I totally agree with what you're saying.

Absolutely.

Anything else?

Uh thank you.

Um, very quickly, just um, I know that a tremendous amount of time went into this, so I just want to commend um council persons binder and uh Pungo for the work they put in.

And I do agree that you know that when this does get finalized and you put together the budget so pick whatever you want to call it, I think that's really important because that's the that's the product of this work and and for future council for persons and and future administration.

I mean, we're not all gonna be here in 10 years, 15 years.

So having something that comes out of this process that could be utilized from for from people in the future, I think is really um good.

So um great work and um anxious to see it all come together.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

I also want to thank you for taking interest in what we do and the processes that are working and not working.

We are all about um that things could change, you know, things just because we have done something for so long, we not necessarily have to continue with that.

There's a room for improvement, and how do we make that um change or how do we improve?

And uh we do the budget team appreciates you listening to us and putting so much effort into coming up with the what what are the possibilities?

Um, I know everything that was presented today might not be happening, but uh, we are thankful for you um coming up with uh uh some thoughts there.

Absolutely no, and and we couldn't have done it without all the input and understanding our process helps us be more responsible council people.

So thank you.

All right.

Um I guess with that being said, unless there's any final thoughts, comments, that pretty much concludes the agenda for the budget and finance committee and adjourns our meeting.

Thank you.