Thank you.

The work session of the Annapolis City Council for Thursday, April 16th, 2026, will be called to order at 5 p.m.

At this time, would everyone willing and able please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States.

And to the Republic.

For which it stands.

One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

City attorney, please call the next item on the.

I'm sorry.

Yes, please present the next item on the agenda.

First item on the agenda is ID 7726 budget overview and review of the city council budget binder.

Thank you.

And thank you both for being here.

Would you please identify yourselves and help us begin the presentation in any context you want to dive in?

I would um recommend we start with just an overview of what we hope to accomplish today.

And I'll share in advance that I'm not expecting.

So two things.

We are need being asked to be done by 6.45 for because it's a planning commission meeting by 7.

Really, I was asked to 6 30, but I'm saying 6 45.

I'm not expecting to finish everything we want to finish today.

So I've already added this to the agenda for Monday, April 27th, to continue this conversation as one of the agenda items.

So don't feel the pressure to um if we don't finish by 6.45, we're just continuing the conversation.

Along those lines, I'll also add for the April 27th meeting.

I intend to have the first public hearing on the budget legislation, and at the end of that meeting, continue it to the next meeting and continue it and continue it so that um just so you all know it'll hopefully be clear on the agenda.

The idea is to have multiple public hearings so someone could comment in the beginning if they wish to, in the middle, or at the end, and once we need to end it, we'll end it.

Um but that's my intention for your communication purposes.

Okay.

Thank you.

So with all that, hopefully gave you time to set up and ready to go.

Yeah, I was clicking a lot.

Uh Vicky Becklin, acting city manager, and Al Cal, uh, acting finance director.

Um good.

Go ahead.

I'm happy to defer.

Uh obviously there's a lot of work that goes into this all the time.

Uh, as you can appreciate um this year, uh given administrative administration change, changes in council, changes in finance.

Um pulling this together has required it always requires a village.

It particularly uh required a village this year.

Um, and I very, very much appreciate the engagement of uh the departments um and especially Department of Finance and particularly the budget team.

Um Capri Turner, Darren Johnson, Suzanne Flaherty put in real yeoman's work.

Um, Jake Trudeau um has stayed and also provided support to the budget development and really appreciate his involvement in that.

So um, and obviously um ably led by uh Joel, who will be doing the presentation today.

Remember, this is an overview.

We'll be getting into a lot more details as time goes on.

Um take it away, Joel.

Sure.

So thank you very much.

Um she didn't thank herself for all of the time she spent sitting in directors' meetings as well as with all of you and learning about your initiatives and everything else.

So she has shepherded this process immaculately through to allow us to have delivered it on time and now have this meeting.

So excited to work with you all and work through this uh activity.

But I do need to give a huge shout out to Kaelin over here for getting you guys these budget books that are uh and Capri as well for other folks who may be attending.

Uh so just huge team effort all around, and just really really thankful for everyone that's been part of this process to really get us here.

So uh starting with that, but uh I have a presentation prepared, uh, but I think the very first thing that I wanted to do uh as a counter to the budget books that are now in front of you is make sure you understand how to engage with the website.

Uh so I'm just gonna spend a quick five minutes on that just to make sure folks haven't had the opportunity yet.

But uh skipping forward in the steps of getting to the city government page and then moving to the budgets proposed and adopted.

You'll see that there are both the fiscal year 2027 proposed capital budget hyperlink.

That one will take you to what is a PDF, very consistent with what you guys have seen in the past, and then underneath of the operating budget, there is a section that says fiscal year 2027 proposed annual operating budget.

And then underneath of the operating budget, there is a section that says fiscal year 2027 proposed annual operating budget.

Is that my computer?