Thank you for being here.

We will call this Finance Committee hearing to order.

Want to thank you all for joining us today.

Today we will be having a discussion on the first quarter review, and I was actually saying more broadly just the city's financial uh position.

During the consideration of this year's budget, Council uh committed to continuing conversations regarding fiscal sustainability and stewardship, knowing that the complexities and challenges with this year's budget uh would not end at passage.

As an oversight body, it is our responsibility to hold that dialogue in partnership with the administration in today's hearing is a continuation of that promise as we review the city's first quarter financials and discuss plans to address uh the deficit reflected, and I should say projected deficit reflected in that uh first quarter report.

We have several members of the city and uh council team uh with us tonight to help uh guide us through this journey and tell the story of how we got here, uh, but more importantly, uh how we plan to move forward.

Uh I would uh like to thank in advance uh Director uh Matt Erickson with our legislative research office, uh, the mayor's chief of staff, Elon Sims, thank you for being with us, as well as Deputy Chief Danius Williams, and of course our director of finance, Director Chris Long and uh Auditor uh Jackie Lewis, who was here with us.

I think this is your first hearing, maybe.

So uh get ready.

I think it will be an exciting one.

We'll see.

Um then also want to recognize we have our safety director with us as well, Kate Pashadi uh in the audience.

Uh additionally, I would like to thank my council colleagues for joining me today in this uh conversation, but also I think for their continued work uh behind the scenes and in their committee work, uh, working with the administration as well.

Uh Council uh President, I think I'm gonna turn it over to you for some opening remarks and then any of my colleagues that have remarks as well.

Please feel free.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you certainly for your your leadership, and I echo uh your appreciation for uh the ongoing work in relationship with uh our auditor uh and the administration.

So good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us uh today.

I do want to start by acknowledging that we take this hearing uh as a serious uh conversation, that we are here to operate with transparency and accountability and respect for our residents and for our workforce about the challenges that we are facing as a city.

As the chair stated, the city is already facing a projected $15 million deficit early in this fiscal year, and that alone is not unusual to have a deficit and to make it up over the course of the year.

The difference this year is that all the usual tools that we typically rely on to tighten the belt have already been exhausted.

We've already cut hundreds of vacant positions, and the administration says they've frozen hiring for all but the most essential positions.

And we have every reason to believe that the deficit could grow.

Look, every city is facing financial pressures right now, from the rising cost of goods to health insurance premiums to the end of federal funding like the American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

But I want to explain how we got here in Columbus specifically.

Each year, the administration submits a budget to City Council.

I believe the 2025 operating budget was the first budget since the Great Recession where the city actually finished out in the red.

The administration told us that we were that they were on it and that they'd make adjustments to fix the problem in the coming year.

But then we learned last year's and last year's first quarter review that the administration had made a $30 million budgeting error and that they needed to spend the year finding savings to address that.

In that process, they used up funds that we could be using now to balance this budget.

The administration submitted the 2026 operating budget, and at that time and across multiple hearings, including a final hearing in February, council members raised alarms.

We were clear that we were that there were significant unanswered questions about whether that budget was sustainable.

We raised concerns about the assumptions being made, the gaps that could emerge, and that whether the city was making the difficult decisions necessary to remain financially stable.

I said at the time that I thought it was an unserious budget.

In amendments, we restored funding to programs like the Columbus Promise, the Community Shelter Board, the primary one community health center, and the courts.

The administration backed out of that commitment.

Instead, inviting Finance Chair Bankston to participate in some internal meetings that they were having, and not including either our previous or our current city auditor.

So I sincerely, and I mean this, appreciate the leadership and the relationship between the uh the chair is having to move us along.

I think it is in good faith, and I think the administration is working with them in good faith.

But that was not the committee that we asked for.

In the meantime, the things that we said we feared happening in February have now come true, and here we are.

What is incredibly frustrating is that this is not the product of an economic recession or an emergency, an expensive need or a severe drop in revenue.

Columbus has a healthy tax base, and should we should be able to live within our means.

So here we are.

On the revenue side, revenue is coming in near target.

But usually by this point we are way over target.

So if we come in under, we'll have to make up millions there.

On the expense side, Columbus Police and FIRE have already spent almost all the overtime budgeted for the whole year.

We have to keep people safe.

So every dollar we spend from here on out, we will have to come up with from somewhere else, and we will.

Meanwhile, negotiations with collective bargaining units are happening.

If those come in over budget, if they look anything like the last year's round of contracts, then the city will have to make up those differences as well.

We've already asked all non-union management employees across the city to forego any cost of living adjustments for the year.

And at any point, a big unexpected obligation, like a legal settlement or an unexpected bill could send us scrambling at a moment when we don't have much margin for error.

In short, again, this $15 million deficit could easily grow.

So here we are, here today with the administration to hear the administration's plan to deal with these issues.

A responsible budget requires more than accounting gimmicks on paper or simply pushing cost off to future years.

It requires us making the hard choices necessary to protect core services and to maintain this city's long-term financial health.

My message to the administration is clear is that Council is here to make hard choices with you.

What we cannot allow any longer is negligence or denial.

We are halfway through the year.

Still asking for the plan that we needed since last year.

Whatever measures have to be taken now will be twice as painful, twice as disruptive, because they'll have half as much time to take effect.

Every day we wait, the solutions get more painful and more disruptive.

That's insulting to our residents and to our workforce.

We inherited that triple A bond rating from the late Hugh Dorian and Mayors Lishukka and Coleman and others who came before us.

A bond rating is like a family's credit score.

A higher one lets us finance investments in infrastructure and housing and more at lower rates.

Anything that impacts the triple A is essentially a penalty on future generation of city residents eroding the purchasing power of the city's ability to invest their taxes into parks, into sidewalks, and to other safety-related investments.

So to close, I reiterate that again, today is about accountability.

It's about transparency and making sure that the city is on a sustainable path, not just for this year, but that we get to build back into the future.

What is upsetting is that this structural imbalance wasn't caused by homeless or hungry or sick folks, uh, and that they shouldn't have to pay the price for it.

This is about us.

This was about mismanagement with the city having to get back on track.

At a moment when so many families are struggling to make ends meet, they should not now have to worry about their city's finances.

I once again invite the administration to the table, but we cannot wait.

It's the administration's job to live within the city's budget that they have proposed, but if they can't, then council will legislate to balance the budget.

And that could look like across the board, department cuts, as stricter hiring freeze, a pause on new contracts or more.

It could also look like requiring financial practices that have long been custom for our city, but that we've drifted away from in years.

It could also look like reducing or foregoing our fall bond sale or our fall capital budget.

When it comes to making sure that not just our city, but our employees and the community that is watching us all lead in this moment, know that we will continue to be a fiscally uh sustainable uh and smart city.

To me, then nothing is off the table.

So thank you again for being here.

I look forward to the conversation to hearing from the administration, from hearing from my colleagues, but making sure that again that at the end of the day, we will have a plan that will have us have a balanced budget and have us on a right track going forward into 2027.

Thank you so much.

Other colleagues have any opening remarks.

Again, thank you all for being here.

Well, we'll just go right into our presentations uh and to kick us off in this discussion with the presentation from Director Erickson, followed by a presentation uh from uh Lewis, and then a presentation from our administration uh partners and then public comment to close us out for today.

So with that, I'll turn it over to uh Director Erickson.

Thank you, Chair Bankston.

Uh thank you to all the other council members I get to address today.

It's a pleasure to come before you again.

Um last time I was here to uh talk about the budgets was when we all got together in February.

Um as we're talking about the first quarter review, wanted to provide um sort of setting the stage a little bit, um, reminding council members about the discussions that we had as the council president um covered most of my content uh in his opening remarks.

Um but wanted to talk a little bit about um the 2025 into 2026 financial circumstances um and provide some historical context uh to consider the first quarter review.

So um as a reminder, on February 25th, uh we uh council held the final budget hearing to discuss our proposed amendments to the council budget and what was to the to the city's uh budget.

Um couple of caveats um by the way, please feel free to stop me, jump in, um, ask questions at any time.

Sure.

Second, um the uh issues that we discussed uh at the budget hearing, the those that sort of rose to the top for all the council members, um, you know, we we discussed the the $30 million budget issue uh from 2025 um that's uh really required some extraordinary measures towards the end of the year uh in order to uh make payroll.

Uh we've already talked a lot about public safety over time uh and the fact that it has uh historically been dramatically um under budgeted.

Um that's especially relevant with the opening of Fire Station 36, brand new fire station up on the northeast side, uh, for which at least to our knowledge, there are not dedicated uniform uh personnel to staff that station and will likely incur significance overtime expenses associated with that.

Um the next two items tipping fees, weekly recycling and over reliance on its uh it's uh being the income tax set aside.

These are sort of in tandem with one another.

Um, just obviously to remind the council members and for anybody watching this, it's uh the income tax set aside fund is our primary means for repaying our general obligation debt, essentially our non-public utilities uh related debt.

Um and uh the city has uh strict uh financial controls in place to ensure that we are not overobligating ourselves.

Um, but uh it has become increasingly common to draw um quite a bit of operating expenses from the cash reserves that are left over in the income tax set aside once the city has met its debt obligations rather than leveraging that cash for additional capital capacity.

Uh we talked extensively.

Um I have attrition on here, but really what we're talking about is the growth in jobs that the city has experienced in the last five to six years that's uh were largely supported through a lot of those supported through one-time funds through the CARES Act funds and then through ARP funds and uh under federal guidelines, you're talking about funds that had to be spent by the end of 2024.

So obviously the city being in a position where it was needing at that time to evaluate into right size, but still carrying the staff compliment that we did uh is really the biggest reason why we are projecting the deficit that we are now.

Uh Council President in his opening remarks alluded to the the um uh CBA negotiations, the the union negotiations with our um union workforce uh and uh the idea that given our prior experience uh with the current contracts um that we may be looking at cost increases above and beyond uh what's the administration that budgeted in their proposal.

Uh and then uh the deferred uh reserve fund deposits, specifically we're talking about the 27th pay period fund and the rainy day fund.

Uh the idea that we had not been um uh making deposits into those funds when we knew, when we know at least with the 27th pay period, that that is an obligation that we are going to incur uh and that gets increasingly expensive uh if we continue to defer deposits uh into that fund.

Uh and so again, as the council president alluded to, there were several members who had um stridently advocated for a public uh multilateral process uh task force to uh evaluates the city's finances and um put us on a track to right size the budgets relative to the city's needs.

So ultimately, when council sorry, let me go back one.

Um when council ultimately adopted the general fund budget uh on March 5th, the amendments that council focused on included uh restoring support for Columbus Promise, adding additional uh funds for community shelter board, uh $7.2 million.

Should be noted that uh council went through a very similar process and the administration did in terms of scraping to find those dollars.

The amendments that council enacted when council passed the 2026 operating budget leveraged funds that's um we we really had to um scrape for and talk with the city attorney's office, talk with the auditor's office about being able to leverage some of these funds simply to maintain uh some of these services.

Uh we were cities fortunate in that it is starting to receive um uh revenue associated with the don't use cannabis funds, and so we were able to leverage that uh to restore um some of the uh elevate grants, uh the nonprofit um grant making that the city does.

Uh we also added some additional resources for the municipal court uh and restored the 27th pay period fund at least for 2026.

Might say that that's actually the 2025 deposits, um, but we are still still at least one year behind on the 27th pay fund.

And then uh 1.8 million dollars restoring some support to primary one, uh primarily through diverting some expenses onto the opiate action fund and the revenue that the city is receiving from that.

So now I want to shift a little bit into providing some context for the first quarter review.

And this table is going to be the same on for the next four years.

Uh so I just want to kind of walk through real quick, make sure council members understand what they're looking at here.

On the left, those items, the projected year-end surplus deficit.

This is whatever is reported on the administration's quarterly reports uh that is a projection of how much the city is going to overspend or underspend the overall general fund appropriation.

It is a projection, and it is by the end of the year.

So just for this for these purposes, in 2022, the deficit went from a projected with the year-end general fund number one from a deficit of 287,000 to then a surplus of 281,000 in the second quarter, 45 and a half million in the third quarter, and then actually ended um underspending by about 54.3 million dollars.

Next line that, and again, I won't do this for every single one.

I just want to make sure council members understand what they're looking at.

The general fund, the filled budgeted general fund positions uh across different departments.

Uh, the next line you have uh again as projected on the quarterly, how many vacant general fund positions?

So I'm sorry, take that back.

So there are some situations in which we are projecting to fill positions that are going to become vacant.

Um that's why that the number is gonna look a little bit strange on a different slide.

But at least in this case in 2022, you have a quarterly that projected hiring 650 individuals.

Notably, that next line indicates how many general fund positions were actually filled uh during that quarter.

So in 2022, there were 650 positions that are projected to be filled at some point throughout the year.

That's the important consideration could happen in the first, second at that point in the second, third or fourth quarter.

There were 650 positions in the first quarter.

The city actually lost 98 general fund positions.

The next quarter in the second quarter went down to 586.

During that quarter, we only hired 38.

That number went down to 277, and at that point, sorry, those numbers should actually be reversed.

We hired 72 uh individuals in the third quarter, and for the year, we ended up with a net increase of 132 general fund positions.

So the first quarter of you projected we'd fill 650 positions.

We actually filled 132.

In contrast, you see some of those safety overtime numbers uh that are included as a projection on each of the quarterlies.

And again, that is a projection of what are the full year expenses without regard for the actual appropriation.

What are the expected full year appropriations?

As a reminder, uh public safety overtime is is appropriated this year at uh, I think a total of 27 million dollars.

So uh you see that number in contrast to the the deficit on the quarterly.

The projected safety overtime expenses always increase.

They have always been going up.

And in fact, over the next four years, uh, we see that public safety overtime expenses tend to be on average about 15% higher at the end of the year than what was included on the first quarter review.

So if I'm going to 2023, you see a very, very similar pattern where we started with a deficit of 9.9 million.

We ended with 25.9 million, almost 26 million.

But if you jump down to those rest of year general fund hires compared to how many are actually hired, you see 600 projected in the first quarter and a total of 201 FTEs were added.

So there are about 457 positions that uh we did not end up hiring, and you still see that that um uh projected safety overtime expenses increase quarter by quarter.

2024, 2024, we have pretty much the exact same deficits that is projected uh in this year's first quarter review, and 2024 is 15.4 million dollars.

That quarterly projected on the first quarter that we would add 599 positions.

I'm gonna get into this a little bit more on the next couple of slides.

Um, but this is I I think it's important for council members to keep this 2024 uh year uh in their mind because of the the similarities with the numbers they were looking at.

And then if I'm moving on to 2025, um that obviously is looks a little bit aberrant with that first quarter deficit of 46.4 million.

I would note that that is inclusive of that $30 million uh error that was discovered after the first quarter review.

And so um I suppose one way to look at it is in reality the deficit would probably be closer to 16 million uh without that 30 million, uh, because the reality was that those individuals were still on staff uh for the city.

Um but uh again, same situation, 446 positions projected on the first quarter.

Uh at the end of the year, about 108 positions were ultimately filled, about 338 positions were not filled.

Again, these were included on the first quarter review.

When they're on the first quarter review, again, they can be for any amount of time in the next nine months.

It's very common on a quarterly.

Well, you'll see, especially when it comes to some public safety forces for the uniform forces, that they won't necessarily have a um any kind of budgetary implication.

That's the case this year with fire.

Uh for in fact, the firefighters, um, there's a 45 firefighters that are projected to be added to the city's workforce by the end of this year.

Um, however, it's not going to be until um the second half of December.

Um, so that that can also that has a tendency to to inflate some of these numbers as well.

So I've kind of been highlighting these two issues of jobs and overtime, and I just think it's important for council members to keep these in mind as as we uh listen to the rest of the presentation.

Um, that's uh typically the the go-to understandably, as for almost all major cities in the United States, personnel expenses are uh the overwhelming majority of our general fund expenses.

And so if you are going to find and accrue savings in the city's budget, then it is going to be associated with personnel.

And for us, it's about um diverting or sorry, delaying uh the filling of vacant positions.

On average, we end up filling about 22% or about one in five of the positions uh that are projected on the first quarter review that's uh actually end up getting filled.

Um, and noting that the issue with the 2026 first quarter review is that it includes 207 full-time positions projected to be filled with the same 15 and a half million dollar deficit as 2024, and about 165 of those 207 full-time positions are uniform police and fire.

With regard to uniform police and fire and overtime expenses, public safety has, as council members discussed this extensively at the hearing, um public safety has uh made some improvements uh with regard to getting um uh overtime expenses under control uh through last Friday, uh the departments overall was up two percent year over year through the first, as I'm noting here through the first the council president hit on this in his opening remarks.

Um the the issue is when we when we frame it as under control, it doesn't change the fact that it is still significantly under budgeted and that not quite halfway through the year.

The police has utilized about three quarters of their um uh budgeted appropriation for overtime and fire is used 98%.

Uh the full year overtime projection on the quarterly is 48 million dollars, it's about 20 million dollars the current appropriation.

Um last year's uh full year overtime expense was 51.6 million dollars, and as I noted um when I was uh speaking before, traditionally what we see on the first quarter review is about 17 percent lower in terms of those projected overtime expenses for the last three years it's been 15 percent lower.

For the last three years it's been 15 percent lower.

Um, but regardless, um unless there is uh a very significant operational change, um, I would expect uh overtime expenses to continue to uh increase.

With that, I will take your questions thank you for your presentation, Directors.

Any questions from my colleagues for Director Erickson specifically?

I know that we are still gonna get uh some insights from the administration as well.

So if folks want to ask questions now, they can.

Or we can hold all the council.

Yeah, uh director, you I know we've heard a lot about the property tax continues to lag as a function of the IT issue.

So have you heard any estimates on when that might resolve?

Uh yes, thank you for the question, Councilman Reming.

The auditors office let me know two days ago that to their knowledge, property tax uh the property tax issue is but has been resolved and that we should uh largely be in alignment with with our expectations for this year.

I certainly happy to have the auditor address that Catherine McGreen.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Director Erickson, do you have a sense of if these trends continue for 2026, where you project us ending that?

Councilmember Green, uh thank you for that question too.

It is I I don't to give you a very simple answer, I don't.

It is uh simply too early in the year to do that.

Um, and we're in uh very unusual operating environment under the circumstances.

I think it would be premature to project a deficit on the idea that everything is going to remain as is, um, given that we know that there are um that that the administration is considering some some significant changes that could um fundamentally uh reduce that deficit.

Yeah, and I guess that's why we're here as well, right?

Thank you.

Just one question, chair.

Uh uh Director, I do want to put this in context.

The city has a deficit, but if you look around the country right now, I'm reading reports out of New Orleans.

Um many other cities are facing something similar.

My question is are you seeing cities react differently?

Are we acting in line with other cities who are also facing the same thing around the country?

Uh thank you for the question, Council President.

Um there are you're absolutely right.

Many, many, many American cities are facing the exact same issues that we are in one flavor or another.

Uh, the biggest issue being that's uh the disappearance of the federal uh dollars that were propping up a lot of cities' budgets during the pandemic.

Um there were some cities that made a more deliberate uh approach at um winding uh winding that down.

Uh I know that's um Denver, for instance, when they were looking at a between a 45 and a 60 million dollar shortfall.

Um, they were very intentional about approaching this from an overhead first perspective, that they were going to reduce the city's overhead rather than uh reducing support to outside organizations.

Um in contrast to that, Charlotte um did largely what the administration's budget proposal did, which was preserve core city functions and reduce support to some of those external partners.

Um there are some um some simple ways that that uh other cities have uh gone about this.

I know that um for instance Madison, Wisconsin uh just uh essentially mandated a two percent across the board uh reduction for all their general fund departments.

Um they enacted some creative measures like um uh prohibiting interagency uh revenue exchanges, so it's more of an accounting trick, but the idea is that for instance enterprise agencies or internal service agencies wouldn't be able to um essentially take general fund monies um and enrich themselves, not enrich themselves, but I think you kind of understand what I'm what I'm getting at.

Um you have cities like Austin that uh sort of officially enacted um what they're considering an absorption mandate that there are you know the very public about saying there are no new initiatives.

Um any new initiative that a city department is looking to do has to fit within you know their existing budget, so nobody should expect that there will be any expansion in service provision under any circumstances.

Um obviously there are um there are ways that you can approach this um trying to cause as little public pain as possible in terms of that service provision level.

There were um I know that Denver, for example, when they were looking at reducing overhead, um, first doing what they could to reduce their administrative costs, but then trying to reduce service provision in the least painful way possible by looking at uh you know what what are the lowest traffic days at rec centers or what are the lowest traffic hours at rec centers that we can you know close things?

Um what are the lowest traffic days in some of the other administration offices that residents tend to interact with?

Um what can we shift to online services so that we can reduce overhead through facility expenses, um that sort of thing.

I one item I found that I thought was particularly interesting, um, which uh frankly I think um, and I this is a discussion for another day, but um a cost-saving measure for uh that that Cleveland implemented um what and it's somewhat closely tied to their capital budget.

But the idea being that if they have Cleveland has accrued significant cash reserves, as have we, by the way.

The the rainy day fund is is close to 110 million dollars, I believe.

Um Cleveland was uh made a deliberate decision that instead of issuing bonds uh to support their capital projects and paying the associated interest with it when projects don't happen as quickly as uh we initially assume that they will, um, as is very, very common in many cities.

Um, what they have instead started to do is pay for those with cash reserves and then issue bonds to reimburse their cash reserves and essentially immediately avoid the issue of interest on projects that are essentially just lying fallow.

So I thought there were some interesting, interesting approaches that cities have been leveraging.

Thank you.

Any other questions from our colleagues?

All right.

Uh Chair, may I uh ask a question of direct council member doors is what us partially I forgot about that.

Yes, sir.

Well, it had on screen.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Director Erickson.

So when we talk about um you know, sort of this overtime issue, particularly with public safety, I think that's gonna dominate a lot of the discussion here today.

Uh, but specifically just digging into sort of the details of that for folks that may be watching this when you talk about um, you know, the base biggest expense for the city from operational budget standpoint is our people, right?

The folks that are picking up our trash, the folks that are keeping our residents safe, whether or not this please serve fire.

Um so it may be a little bit confusing when we talk a little bit about um you know the the need potentially for more police or more firefighters and that being actually a cost savings measure as it relates to sort of the overtime.

So you alluded to um you know recently opening fire station 36 and sort of the overtime implications for that.

So you could just sort of walk us through sort of that calculus a little bit so that residents may better understand.

We talked about you know, overtime is both a driver of you know things that are happening in the community as far as needing more public safety response, but also uh a consequence of having our existing workforce work more hours uh because of potentially the lack thereof of additional folks to be able to pick up that additional work that's needed.

Could you sort of walk folks through there uh and just sort of uh identify why you know that overtime when we talk about you know that increase for someone working overtime compared to working in sort of their their standard uh hours.

Sure.

I'll do my best, President Pro Tim.

I I I think I um kind of understand what you're getting at.

Uh realistically, this is probably gonna be a better question for public safety uh if they have a chance to weigh in on this.

But um to address what I think you're um speaking to.

Um the overtime expenses have been rising.

There is a uh there's there's a consideration that all employers uh really uh should go through when it comes to overtime, which is that overtime itself is not inherently an evil thing or a bad thing.

Um there are plenty of circumstances where overtime expenses would be preferable, obviously, to onboarding new employees, uh, that it's it's likely going to be less expensive uh to staff uh uh some kind of infrastructure through overtime than the costs associated with the pay and benefits um of an additional FTE, one or more FTEs.

Um there is there is a metric.

Uh I want to say it's something like 10%, generally speaking, that if your overtime expenses uh exceed 10% of your uh operational personnel budget, that's when you need to uh really start evaluating uh your your staffing needs.

Um it's particularly challenging with public safety because they have required staffing needs that that are um based in in contract and based on operational needs that they have to have a minimum number of uh police officers and firefighters of certain ranks with certain capabilities and capacities at each of the uh fire stations at police substations uh to ensure that's uh that that we are reaching minimum staffing levels.

And so there is a uh overtime is something that that we are going to incur that we have to incur uh to one degree or another, uh, simply by virtue of minimum staffing requirements.

I don't know if that addressed your question, sir.

It did.

And again, just to pull up that thread a little bit more when you talk about it's just not the complication of individual needing another firefighter or another police officer to fill a shift.

It's also the complication of having a sergeant or lieutenant or a battalion chief be able to be in those sort of management positions that are overseeing those folks that are performing those services.

So it's not just you know simply we just need another body here, uh, which may actually be the case, but also then having those other folks that provide that additional degree of supervision administration that come along with that.

So when we talk about you know your point of, you know, sometimes it's easier to manage certain budget constraint through just utilization over time, but the over reliance upon overtime can have a cascading effect, both for the sort of individual sort of the yeah, at the bottom of the organizational chart all the way to the top.

Thank you, um, President Pro Tim Dorns.

Uh, want to welcome uh Councilmember Lord Esperosa David, who's joined us.

Uh and we'll move forward our presentations.

I say that I think there will be more questions as we get into the administration's presentation and also hear from our auditor.

And with that, I will turn it over to our auditor, Miss Jackie Lewis.

Good afternoon, Chair Bankston and committee members.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to present an update on the City of Columbus's 2026 general fund operating revenue performance, with particular attention to income tax collections, broader general fund revenue trends, and recent employment data through May 31st, 2026.

Columbus entered 2026 in a position of stability.

For the general fund operating fund, the city's updated total estimated available resource base is 1,261,910,366, a modest increase of 0.41% over 2025 actuals.

Within that total, the core revenue estimate is 1,226 million 327, 370,000 dollars, reflecting projected growth of 2.37% over 2025 actual core revenues, or approximately 28.34 million dollars.

As in prior years, this outlook is driven primarily by income tax, which is expected to account for 77.5 percent of total general fund revenues in calendar year 2026.

Through May 31st, general fund operating revenue growth is currently running 2.82 percent year to date, slightly ahead of the original estimate of 2.37 percent.

Through May 31st, 2026, total net income tax collection collections are up 3.76 percent, or about 15.5 million dollars compared with the same period in 2025.

That overall gain reflects two very different patterns.

Employer withholdings are up eight percent year to date, supported by a strong labor market, steady wage growth, and hiring gains in sectors such as utilities, which are up 8.51%, and health care, which is up 1.94%.

By contrast, net profit tax collections are down 22 percent, a notable reversal from the 23.66 percent increase seen during the same period last year.

This this decline appears to reflect sector normalization after unusually strong 2025 results.

Contract contraction in corporate-facing industries such as management of companies, which are down 2.66 percent, and professional services, which are down 1.89 percent.

The effects of automation and offshoring in administrative functions, a broader economic and broader economic uncertainty, including impacts of the federal government shutdown during the same estimated period.

With respect to employment, employment data for the first quarter of 2026 shows a local economy that remains stable, but is continuing to shift in composition.

Total job job growth was modest at 1.3 percent with gains concentrated in essential and infrastructure related sectors.

Utilities, construction, and education led job growth, with utilities up 8.51 percent, construction up 2.95%, and education up 2.44 percent.

Some sectors experience declines, including accommodations and food services, which were down 2.14%, and IT, which was down 1.68 percent, and the corporate management and professional services fields discussed earlier, which are down 2.66 percent and 1.89 percent, respectively.

Even with those sector-specific declines, the overall revenue picture remains stable.

Growth in higher value industries, including health care and technology related work, continue to offset employment reductions tied to automation and restructuring in administrative areas.

With respect to other revenue sources, they show mixed but manageable results through May 31st of this year.

Charges for services are up 16.49%, totaling 41.1 million dollars.

This increase is driven pro RADA, I'm sorry, this increase is driven by pro-RADA charges up 21.07%, and fire and EMS charges up 12.79%, with the latter also reflecting the resolution of the 2025 billing delays caused by the cyber attack.

Investment earnings are down 5.97%, totaling 24.9 million dollars as expected due to the impact of easing interest rates at the end of 2025.

Shared revenue is up 8.42 percent, supported by a 9.15% increase in receipts from the state's local government fund.

And property tax collections are down 11.88%, totaling 42.6 million dollars.

This decrease is primarily a timing difference rather than a loss of revenue.

As mentioned earlier, uh the city received its homestead and rollbacks payments in April of last year.

This year, uh, because of a technical issue, approximately $4 million was received on June 15th, 2026, affecting the year-to-date comparison through May 31st.

If that June receipt had been received before May 31st, property tax collections would have been down approximately 3.63 percent year to date instead of 11.88%.

In summary, the city's general fund operating revenue performance remains resilient during a period of economic transition.

Core revenue, excluding one-time transfers, is growing at 2.82 percent year to date, which is currently ahead of the original 2.37 percent growth estimate.

Strong growth in employer withholdings confirms that Columbus continues to attract high-wage workers and maintain a healthy employment base.

At the same time, the decline in net profit tax collections and the modest pace of job growth point to ongoing change changes in the business environment, including normalization after a strong prior year, and continued restructuring due in part to advances in technology such as AI and a lag in business confidence due to economic uncertainty.

Even so, the city's diverse economy and balanced general fund revenue base support a positive outlook, and Columbus remains on a solid path to meet its general fund operating revenue expectations for 2026.

And without taking any questions.

In preparing this data, we did some research and candidly, we don't see anything in particular that would be any particular employment or large projects that are coming online that would give us a reason to believe income tax revenues will receive a bump up throughout the year.

It's something we will continue to monitor uh throughout the course of the year and make adjustments based on that information as we receive it.

Got it.

Thank you.

Any other questions from my colleagues?

President Harden.

Just following up on the chair's uh question.

Been around here long enough to know some years you get tricked by the early on higher uh uh revenue uh uh percentage coming in.

I remember I think at one point last year we were up twelve percent.

So it's good that we're we're meeting uh the projection.

But in past years I've seen it actually tick down uh throughout the year.

It how does that how was that made up?

Like I think how do we think through if that if we don't hit that four percent?

Yeah, um great question.

I mean, candidly, it's something we watch very closely, and we are a little closer to the line than we would like to be for that very reason.

Um, dare I say that in the event that revenues come in under what's projected, we'd have to uh reduce the revenue estimate, and we'd be looking at um a more sizable deficit.

Any questions from my other colleagues?

All right.

Seeing that we will uh move on.

Thank you, uh Auditor Lewis.

Uh next, we'll move into our presentation from uh the administration again with us, uh Chief Elon Sims, as well as our deputy uh chief of staff, Danius Williams, and Director Long of our finance and management department.

Uh Chief, I'll turn it over to you.

Well, thank you, and good afternoon, everyone, President Hardin, members of Council, Director Long, Erickson, colleagues and residents watching today.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Let me just start with something I was going to share uh at the end.

Um it's important to note that the story of this first quarter review is not that Columbus discovered a problem.

The story is that Columbus built a system capable of identifying challenges early enough to solve them.

This should not be about a blame exercise.

This is not and should not be administration versus council.

This cannot become a conversation about who is playing politics.

The people of Columbus expect all of us to work together to solve problems, protect services, and position this city for the long-term success.

That is exactly what we intend to do.

We welcome partnership.

We welcome dialogue, we welcome accountability, and we welcome your ideas.

Because the growth and success of Columbus has never been the result of one person, one department, one administration, or any one elected body.

It has always been a result of people working together to solve hard problems.

So we welcome this conversation.

Transparency, accountability, and stewardship of taxpayer dollars and our responsibilities we take seriously, and today's presentation is part of that commitment.

Before we discuss numbers, forecasts, or budget projections, I want to begin with something very important.

This first quarter report is doing exactly what is in is intended to do.

It is identifying financial pressures early enough for us to respond thoughtfully, deliberately, and responsibly.

What you will hear today is not that Columbus is in crisis.

What you hear today is that Columbus is experiencing many of the same fiscal pressures that have already been mentioned today facing cities across the country, inflationary pressures, increased personnel costs, rising health care expenses, public safety demands, and economic uncertainty.

And importantly, these challenges are not unique to Columbus.

Cities across Ohio and throughout this nation are confronting many of these same realities.

The data shows that communities everywhere are navigating a period where expenditures are rising faster than revenues.

Federal support has diminished, costs continue to increase, and local governments are being asked to do more with less.

Those challenges are real, and so is our plan.

So over the last two years, this administration has intentionally strengthened how we plan, budget, monitor performance, and make decisions.

Those systems are now doing exactly what they were designed to do, helping us identify earlier, risk earlier, evaluate options sooner, and make better decisions before perceived problems become larger.

What we will offer today is a clear understanding of the other challenges before us and offer a disciplined process for evaluating solutions and a commitment to continue this work transparently with you all and with the public.

And most importantly, we want residents to know this.

Columbus has weathered difficult moments before.

So today you'll hear from both me and Director Long.

Director Long will talk through the financial forecast trends and fiscal outlook.

I'll provide context around the administration's planning efforts, the systems we built, and the actions already underway.

This is more than just a finance conversation.

It's a conversation about leadership, stewardship, planning, and how we prepare Columbus for long-term success.

So our goals for today.

Second, we want to talk through what the first quarter report is actually telling us.

Third, we want to discuss the actions already underway to address financial pressures identified in this report.

And fourth, we want to share how we are actively planning for Columbus's financial future.

To counter a narrative that paints this perception versus it is in reality, I want folks to understand this work is ongoing.

That's exactly what a first quarter review is designed to support.

What we can show today, what we can show today is that we have a process, a plan, and a great team actively working on our plans.

Our goal is not to simply discuss the numbers.

Our goal today is to provide context, transparency, and confidence that the work necessary to address the challenges are already underway.

So our journey.

Because the story of today's forecast did not begin in February, as mentioned in the president's remarks.

It began very well much ago over two years ago.

We recognized that Columbus was entering a new phase of growth and complexity.

We saw tremendous opportunity ahead.

But we also understood that growth brings new expectations, new challenges, and new responsibilities.

We knew that managing a city approaching one million residents would require stronger systems, better coordination, and more proactive planning, and even making harder decisions, which you all know we've made along the way.

That's a journey we're ready to discuss, and we hopeful that you all will have a thoughtful discussion with us today as well.

Over the last several years, Columbus has experienced tremendous growth and opportunity.

As you all know, we are one of the fastest growing cities in the country.

But growth also brings complexity.

Residents expect services to be delivered efficiently, businesses expect responsiveness, neighborhoods expect results.

And at the start of the mayor's third term, he challenged our leadership team to strengthen not only what we do, but how we do it, how we collaborate, how we make decisions, how we solve problems, how we plan for the future.

Because every process we improve, every barrier that we remove, and every decision we make more effectively impacts someone's experience with local government.

This work has always been about better outcomes for residents, better service, better responsiveness, better stewardship, better results.

The reason we remain confident today is because Columbus has successfully navigated challenges before.

Over the last decade, Mayor Ginther has led through periods of uncertainty, disruption, and change.

Yet through that time, we advanced pay equity, we invested in public safety, we expanded economic opportunity, we addressed major health public health challenges, we invested in education and workforce development, we continue moving Columbus forward.

Those accomplished were not by accident.

They happened because leaders, employees, members of council, and community partners worked together.

And they happened because decisions were made thoughtfully and strategically.

That's today's situation, and that requires the same approach.

We're proud of what has brought Columbus to this point.

But we also recognize that the systems that served us over the last decade will need to evolve to support us in the next decade.

We often say what got us here will necessarily carry us to where we want to go.

And that's not a criticism of the past, that's recognizing that growth requires adaptation.

So in 2024, we launched what became what became our strategic roadmap, a citywide administrative effort focused on improving processes, practices, policies, collaboration, and decision making.

The purpose was simple.

Build a stronger organization capable of delivering even greater outcomes for residents.

Because while we're proud of what brought us here, our responsibility is to prepare Columbus for what's next.

Every successful journey begins with a destination.

Before we could improve on how we operate, we first needed to align around where we are going.

And that's what this work has produced: a shared vision, shared priorities, shared values, shared goals, focus on housing, safety, our internal operations, our culture.

These are the things that we bring a common understanding of the outcomes we want to achieve for not only our employees, but our residents as well.

Because difficult decisions, especially financial decisions, should never be made in isolation.

They should be guided by a clear understanding of what matters most.

And that is what this North Star provides.

It aligns departments around a common purpose, it creates consistency in every decision making, and it ensures that when we are required to make difficult choices, those choices remain connected to the priorities of our residents.

This wasn't and has not been an exercise in creating another strategic plan that sits on a shelf.

This is about creating clarity, clarity around who we are, clarity around where we're headed, and clarity around how we will continue serving a rapidly growing city.

So once we knew where we wanted to go, we had to build the path to get there.

And that's what's happened during last year in 2025.

When we transformed a vision into action, we developed a strategic plan that connects planning, budgeting, performance monitoring, and collaboration.

In simple terms, we created a system that aligns resources with those priorities.

Budget should not exist separately from goals.

Planning should not exist separately from accountability.

Department should not operate separately from one another.

Everything should work together.

Because when information moves faster, decisions improve.

And when decisions improve, resources are used more effectively.

And when those resources are used more effectively, residents, we hope will receive better outcomes.

And so for the first time, we're creating that level of connection across this great organization.

And that work is still evolving, but the foundation is now in place.

So this year marks the first time this entire system came online.

For the first time, planning, budgeting, performance monitoring, financial forecasting are operating together.

Today's conversation is actually evidence that the system is working.

We are not waiting until the year end to discover what the challenges might be.

We're identifying them now.

We're discussing them publicly.

We're evaluating the options, and we're acting early.

And that's exactly what residents should expect from their government.

Responsible government doesn't wait for problems to grow.

Responsible governments identify challenges early and responds accordingly.

The first quarter review is not evidence that the system has failed.

The review is evidence that the system has worked.

It surfaced information early.

It provided visibility, and it created time for a thoughtful decision making.

And this is exactly what we intend to build.

So let me shift to our network and how we're supporting this work.

None of this happens by again by one person or one department.

Over the last two years, we've built networks across the organization that bring together finance, planning, technology, communications, workforce equity, and operational leaders.

These groups help us identify challenges early.

They share information faster, solve problems more effectively, and ensure that important decisions are informed by multiple perspectives.

Because the reality is that the challenges facing cities today are increasingly interconnected.

A workforce challenge affects service delivery.

A technology challenge affects operations.

A budget challenge nearly impacts everything.

The best solutions emerge when departments work together rather than independently.

That is exactly what these networks were designed to support.

And out of that came the Strategic Finance Committee, a group specifically designed to strengthen financial planning, accountability and accountability across the organization.

I think it's important to note that this work has been begun years ago.

And so the idea that we've sat on our hands and didn't invite members of this body into the conversation is fairly incorrect.

I want to personally thank uh Councilmember Bankston for being a part of this process with us, and thank for you all who have been a part of this whistle with us as well.

The work will still remain to be ongoing, and we appreciate your continued efforts and partnership in this work moving forward.

Again, I thought as I've already shared, this work cannot be done alone.

We need to do this work together.

And this finance committee exists because financial sustainability is not solely the responsibility of finance management alone.

It requires organizational leadership, it requires collaboration and accountability.

This committee brings together leaders from across city government to evaluate risk, develop solutions, and strengthen decision making.

Its purpose is straightforward.

Identify emerging fiscal risk, evaluate options, support informed decision making, develop long-term sustainability strategies, and ensure that accountability for implementation.

What is important to understand is that this committee was not created because of the first quarter forecast.

This committee is a result of the work that has already been underway for nearly two years now.

The committee gives us another mechanism to evaluate options thoughtfully, challenge assumptions, and ensure decisions are aligned with both our financial realities and our service commitments.

Because the goal is not simply to balance a budget.

The goal is to do so responsibly while continuing to deliver the services residents expect and deserve.

And those residents should expect three things from this work.

Better coordination, better information, better decisions.

So when departments work together more effectively, information moves faster.

Services improve, resources are invested more intentionally, problems are identified earlier, solutions are implemented more quickly, and taxpayer dollars are used more strategically.

The community may never see these meetings happen behind the scenes.

They should feel the impact in their experience with local government.

Whether that's faster access to services, more coordinated responses, better customer experiences, or stronger stewardship of public resources, that is the ultimate goal.

Not process or process sake, but results.

So we spent the last two years building the what we spent the last few years are building capabilities, not theories, not concepts, not hopes and dreams, capabilities, the ability to collaborate across departments, the ability to connect to planning and budgeting, the ability to identify risk earlier, and the ability to standardize financial practices, and the ability to explore innovative solutions, the ability to make better decisions with better information with you all.

These capabilities matter because they are exactly what we're relying on today.

They're helping us evaluate the challenges identify in the first quarter forecast, and they are helping us understand the root causes behind what we are seeing.

And they are helping us determine the best path forward.

Because of the objective has never been this been to a simply react to problems.

The objective has been to build an organization capable of anticipating them.

Everything we've discussed thus far leads directly to the financial decisions you'll hear about by Director Long.

These systems we've built are helping us see the landscape more clearly.

They're helping us identify challenges sooner.

And they're helping us make better challenges, identify challenges sooner.

And they're helping us make better decisions along the way.

So with that, I'll want to turn over to Director Long, who will walk through those early indicators and what they're showing us and what actions that are already underway.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

President Harden, uh Chairbanks and members of council, thank you for this opportunity to discuss the city's general fund of first quarter financial review.

Um the discussion of the strategic roadmap work that Chief Sims just provided an overview for is obviously incredibly important.

It provides the context around which the first quarter financial review really makes sense.

And so appreciate the opportunity to kind of walk through that.

Um, can you move a little closer?

Absolutely.

I'm always afraid of that.

I know my vintage ears, I can't hear that.

Uh not at all.

Sorry about that, Councilmember.

Um the first quarter financial review is how we monitor the city's financial health, how we identify risk early, and how we make responsible decisions before we get too far down the road.

Um so just as we walk through this section, the goal is simple.

Explain what the report is, why it matters, and what the administration is doing to correct the budget deficit.

So before we get into the numbers again, just to reiterate what a quarterly report is and and what it is not, um, a Q1 report is a financial look forward.

Um, it uses the first three months of actual financial activity to help estimate where we may finish by the end of the year.

It is the least predictive of all the financial reports that we provide.

I I think uh Director Erickson depicted that in his testimony as we heard from Auditor Lewis, uh, revenues continue to evolve throughout the year.

And so while it does provide an outlook, it again it doesn't provide the most clear line of sight of for how we're gonna end the year.

Um, as we move through the year into the second and third quarter review, we just naturally get a much better view, right?

We're that much farther uh through the fiscal year.

So, but why it is important um is that it does give us time.

Uh time to ask better questions, to review spending, time to identify options and to make adjustments uh before year end.

Um, just as uh, and Chief Sims hit on this, just as folks in our communities and uh are struggling at this time to navigate the inflationary pressures that we see at the grocery store and at the gas pump uh uh recently, um, the city also uh has to navigate those and monitor uh those costs as we move through the year.

Um as Chief Sims mentioned, um the city isn't alone in this.

Uh we're seeing this across the board throughout our our nation and even locally, that our partner cities and fellow uh cities and local governments are navigating um really some historic uh challenges as it relates to the you know fiscal and political environment.

The next few slides, I wanted to walk you through just some of um the National League of Cities recently released their 2025 fiscal conditions report um in February.

And the next few slides I think are going to really um highlight what the City of Columbus is currently experiencing.

And so um if we could have just advanced through those, um really even through the last several recessions.

What this uh first of all, what this graph is going to show here in a second is how on average city revenue growth has compared with expenditure growth.

Appreciate it.

Yep.

Sorry for the technical difficulties here.

And so um as you can see, the the gray uh vertical bars are the last several recessions that we've had to um endure dating all the way back to the early 90s.

And what we're seeing is that the blue line is revenue growth, and the gold line is expenditure growth.

And so cities were doing fairly well really up until recently, and now we see this divergence where we see expenditures on average growing faster than revenues.

And that's exactly I think what we're seeing here at the City of Columbus.

Um, an environment where our expenditures are growing faster, even though we're very fortunate to have, as Auditor Lewis mentioned, robust uh uh growth in our revenues, and our general fund revenues, our cost structure has changed.

Um we're facing um um expenditure growth.

Uh next slide, please.

Um here's just a snapshot of how the city of Columbus is experiencing this.

Um again, these are just some highlighted uh sections that I think really depict for us um the expenditure growth for the city.

Um from 2010 2021 to 2026, uh wages and benefits alone in the general fund have increased from 667 million to 886 million.

That's 219 million dollars worth of growth in that time period.

That's a 33 percent increases in wages and benefits.

Insurance grew from 103 million to 156 million, $53 million growth, 51 percent percentage increase.

Um again, these are snapshots, they're not um inclusive of all general fund uh cost.

Technology services.

Um this doesn't include uh some of the recent cybersecurity um capital enhancements, but it does show uh a $9 million increase in our technology services in the general fund.

Our public safety budget itself, standalone budget has grown 215 million dollars during this time, 34 percent increase.

And the last uh line there is meant to give a little bit of context around employees.

It's not just the the number of employees that that the city is hiring, it's also the average cost of those employees.

And so what we see is the average cost per city employee in 2021, all in wages, benefits, insurance, 125,000.

Yes.

I have a question specific to this slide.

Sure.

Sure.

Can you uh help me understand particularly with the safety budget?

It's a big jump.

What makes up the bulk of going in 2021, which I don't have a five-year-old, that seems like yesterday, you know, they were that little uh to 850 million.

What causes that jump in that short amount of time?

Well, um, great question.

Thank you, Councilmember Green.

Uh the vast majority of safety's uh budgetary cost are personnel.

Increases.

So um I I think with the last set of um bargaining unit uh increases that were negotiated for fire and police, they were roughly about 180 million dollars collectively for for uh both police and fire combined.

And is that are they is it new uniformed officers?

Are they new special types of staff members?

Are they it's the wages and salary benefits and insurance associated with those?

Yes, we're we're adding new classes, right?

But some officers and firefighters are leaving, right?

But on balance, that average cost per employee, not just for safety, but citywide has increased significantly.

So it's still just like mostly patrol, mostly like your frontline staff.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

No, thanks for the question.

And and again, to your point, that last line is meant to give some um context around that.

We're just seeing our personal costs increase.

And again, our our employees deserve to earn a living wage and to have salaries and uh certainly benefits and insurance, but it it gives it does gives context.

Um also for context, it's not on this slide, but I think during this same period, general fund revenues were around 25% growth.

That's a lot, but it's not these numbers.

Uh next slide, please.

Director Long.

Yes.

Um so going back to piggybacking off of um Councilmember Green's question, just around as we look at wages and benefits.

Is that mostly just because the cost of things are going up, like insurance and you know, in terms of both benefits, but then also as we increase wages, or is it bringing on more new staff?

So great question.

Thanks.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Yeah.

So what we've seen is pre risk pre uh COVID, our average bargaining unit cost was about two and a half percent growth across all.

You know, police, fire, AFSME, all barring units was around two and a half percent.

Um post-COVID, what we've seen is that's increased to about four and a half percent.

So again, it's not a value judgment on what we're paying our employees, it's just the the price tag of our employees has gone up.

And at the same time, insurance went up 19% just from 25 to 26.

That was 23 million dollars hit to the general fund alone in one year.

And um with the safety, so and also to be clear, the wages and benefits are everyone who's not in safety.

So that safety budget is just covering folks in safety.

So wages and benefits include safety.

Okay.

And then I just highlighted safety alone as its own standalone, just to give a sense of the size of our largest department.

Okay, that's helpful, because I just want folks to understand, especially as they're watching.

We're not double counting, but we're just showing it's indifferent.

100%.

Just different buckets.

Right to give a sense of scale.

Okay.

I just know we have our friends also here from the media, and I want to make sure that that's crystal clear as people are adding up these numbers because it's gonna look a little wonky if you don't have the backstory behind it.

So I really appreciate you calling that out.

Yeah.

And again, it's just um I think it again, not a value judgment, it's just the cost of our employees, you know, has gone up, as as has everyone's employees, right?

Um, and so I think uh the last line round of again of uh bargain unit increases for police and fire added about 180 million dollars to the general.

Sorry, one last one last point of clarification.

So for the insurance, it's the same thing.

Do we you didn't count insurance and the wages and benefits?

Correct.

Correct.

That's its own standalone.

Wages and benefits are its own insurance.

Can you be can you just break down for people what those other benefits might be what that we're including in that bucket?

It would be things like set asides for like Medica Medicare, workers' comp, right?

Those things we pull out of folks' paycheck to reserve for those.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

All right, so now to to the numbers.

Um so this is the first quarter financial review.

As we uh began to work through the first quarter for financial review numbers, uh, we were originally trending towards uh um a deficit of about 21.4 million dollars.

Um through the work of our strategic finance committee, we were able to identify some cost savings measures that were able to reduce that down to the 15 and a half million that's actually officially reported that we've we've released the first quarter financial report.

So I'll I'll just move through these quickly.

Um we announced a zero percent um cost of living increase for MCP, uh all MCP uh employees that saves us about 1.3 million dollars annualized.

Um again, we know uh the impact that this has on employees was was not uh considered lightly, but it is a considerable dollar amount, and it was obviously something that we can control to help us uh control costs.

Uh the fleet fund transfer, our our fleet uh fund is an internal service fund, and so essentially they bill out to city departments for the services that they provide, you know, fueling and repairing vehicles.

We're projecting a fairly large cash balance at the end of the year of 2026 of 2.4 million.

Um an internal service fund isn't supposed to carry a large ending cash balance.

Um, it's just supposed to recoup its cost that it incurs throughout the year.

And so we thought that this was an opportunity to essentially refund general fund divisions for a very healthy cash balance.

Of course, we're continuing to monitor the fuel price environment.

We're leaving a half a million dollars in that reserve fund to or excuse me, cash position, cash uh fleet fund balance uh to guard against you know a very volatile fuel environment.

Of course, we're gonna look at it again at the second quarter, um, trying to track fuel prices is so challenging.

Um towing to mobility, uh, there's a public safety expenditures around towing that are uh allowable expenses under the mobility enterprise fund.

So worked in in combination with our public service uh department to shift some of those uh to the mobility fund that allowed us to pick up a million dollars, um partnered with um uh public safety department uh to save some dollars on uniforms for this year, um about half a million dollars there, and then uh it was around 20 positions that we uh pulled and unfunded for the rest of the year.

These would be vacant positions that were not going to fill.

Um it was around 20 positions for the balance of the year that allowed us to pick up another nine 900,000.

So that brings us to about 6.1 of uh cost savings measures, which nets us to to 15 and a half million.

So appreciate the opportunity to walk through the Q1 report, but obviously we're not done yet.

So, in order for us to build a full scale plan to address the remaining estimated budget is our key focus in the next 30 to 45 days.

Um again, first quarter is a prediction, but it's typically least predictive.

We need some more time to understand where we're actually going to end the year and what number we need to solve for.

Um the second quarter review will be kicking off here shortly.

I mean, we're almost at the end of June, obviously, so we're gonna be kicking off our second quarter review process.

That will give us a much clearer line of sight on what any potential budget deficit could be, um, which will obviously the size of that will determine what measures that we need to take to help solve it.

Um we're obviously going to continue work with our uh with our strategic finance committee, um, and our intent is to come back to all of you uh at the end of July to give you a firm roadmap for how we're going to address whatever remaining budget deficit there might be at the second quarter financial review.

So again, it we don't know that it'll be 15, it could be more, it could be less.

We need uh more time to connect with Auditor Lewis to understand where we're gonna land for uh revenues for the year.

So again, to know what we need to solve for, we need some more time as we know.

As we move farther through the year, we just get much better information about we're gonna land.

Um so the next slide talks about excuse me, what our go forward plan is.

Um obviously we want to continue implementing cost saving measures across all departments.

We want to continue to explore innovative solutions with the city team, with council.

Um we want to continue to monitor departmental spending, assess the data from the Q226 report, which is gonna be kicking off here very soon, um, and obviously present uh a plan to close the budget gap to council uh this body by the end of July.

We'll also be issuing a report from our strategic finance committee at that time.

Certainly work with Chair Bankston uh and his office on the production of that report.

Um I did uh well I've got one more slide and I have a few other comments.

Um so long-term action plan.

We're working on a three-year financial plan currently.

Um that's gonna inform not only what the 2027 budget looks like, but also 2028.

Um so we're working on that now.

We anticipate having that done uh uh early late second quarter, early third quarter, September, October.

Again, it's gonna help inform uh the 2027 operating budget.

Again, continuing to monitor expenditures.

Um we want to enhance government uh the governance of our central services group.

Um we're gonna be conducting um we already already have started early work on uh revenues fees and organizational capacity assessments, and obviously from that work, we'll be able to apply learnings around uh revenue fees and capacity assessments.

Um and then just a just a few more remarks.

I wanted to make sure I I addressed some of these in my testimony.

Um, there was an under budgeting last year around police, a personnel cost, but those costs were always going to be present.

Um, they were going to live on through future budgets.

And we addressed those last year.

We're able to build a healthy carryover from that, I think around 20 million dollars.

Um, and so I just want to make sure that um I was able to address that.

Um we are the city's current budget condition is a reflection of the environment that we're in.

And I and I think again, we see it in our community, we see it with our community partners in the nonprofit sector.

We are facing increased costs, and our cost structure has changed.

The policy environment has changed at the federal and state level, and so we're it we are facing increased fiscal and political uncertainty.

Um, these aren't unique to the city of Columbus.

I I also want to make sure that I state that we're we're not employing any type of accounting gimmicks.

We the utilization of it, uh the utilization of other operating and special revenue funds are allowed.

They're of course legal, and other cities employ these measures as well as budget balancing measures.

Um we agree that we're trying to rebalance personnel.

I I think everyone in these chambers realizes that.

But I'm fortunate to work for a mayor who values every job.

Someone losing their job not only of course impacts them, it ripples through families, it ripples through neighborhoods and communities.

We are in the process of rebalancing personnel.

Stripping 200 plus vacancies out of the 2026 operating budget and continuing a controlled hiring practice is yielding real results.

Um, yes, we have a budget deficit that we still need to uh address.

Um, it matters and it's real.

Um, and we're taking measures to do that.

I also want to caution against not adopting a capital budget or moving forward with a bond sale.

Those are the lifeblood of capital investments that our city makes in its neighborhoods.

And we budget for these, we can afford these.

Um they are baked into our capital plan.

Um, we set aside dollars to provide debt service, and so these are things that we can budget for and we can pay for.

Um, and so I I wanted to provide some remarks there.

And then my final set of remarks just really quickly is what we're seeing from other peer cities like Austin and Charlotte, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and even locally with Franklin County is a very close parallel in what they're doing compared to what our cost savings measures are.

And I won't share all the specifics today, but it they're the things that we're doing, right?

It's it's reductions in stretchary contracts, it's limiting across the board wage increases, um, and it's uh doing everything that they can do to also stay away from more uh draconian cuts on the personnel side.

So with that, I'll turn things back over to Chief Sims.

Uh thank you so much, uh Director Long.

Uh, and just to conclude our remarks, we look forward to some initial conversation with your questions as well.

I just want to just conclude by just sharing that you know, one of the opportunities uh conversations like this help is being able to separate perception uh from reality.

And can be it can be easy to assume that if a city is facing a budgetary pressure, someone must have made a mistake.

And I'm glad Director Long uh addressed uh the narrative around the mistake in public safety as well.

As you all know, and what was reported in our first quarter is this review.

Last year there was a 47 million dollar deficit at this same time.

And the end of the year with a 20 million dollar surplus, it didn't require a public hearing, it didn't require these conversations.

But yet we're here today having conversations with you all about where we are in this moment.

And so, as you all shared, and as I say earlier, across the country, uh local governments are experiencing many of the same financial realities, and they are occurring in communities large and small.

They are also influencing the decisions made being made by local governments throughout the nation, and that context matters.

Not because it excuses anything, but because it helps explain why so many communities are grappling with similar questions at the same time.

And so again, we thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

And what we have shared is a first quarter forecast, and as Director Long mentioned, it's not a final outcome.

We have also shared something uh equally important a process, a structure, and our plans moving forward.

And throughout today's presentation, we discussed a number of things about the work that has already been underway these last few years to strengthen how the city plans, budgets, collaborates, and makes decisions.

We discussed our strategic strategic roadmap.

We discussed the capabilities we built, we discussed the finance committee and the systems we put in place to identify challenges earlier and respond more effectively.

And we discussed the fiscal realities facing Columbus today.

The challenges before us are real.

As you have shared, we're not minimizing them.

But we're also not surprised by them.

And you shouldn't be either.

In fact, much of the work we share today was designed specifically to help us navigate moments like this.

As Director Long demonstrated, the fiscal pressures we are experiencing are not unique.

The data reminds us that local governments have always had to navigate challenging economic conditions, periods of uncertainty, and moments where difficult decisions were required.

The national data also shows that cities are today are facing a period where expenditure growth is outpacing revenue growth in many ways, and in many in many ways, communities have not experienced in decades.

Those pressures are real.

Residents feel them, business businesses feel them, and we as a local government feel them as well.

But what should give all of us confidence is that Columbus is not entering this moment unprepared.

We've spent years building the relationships, discipline, systems, and decision making structures necessary to identify challenges earlier and respond more effectively.

And because of that work, we identified these pressures early and we identified them early, and we now we have options.

We have options today because we have time to make thoughtful decisions rather than reactive ones.

And so over the coming months, uh our team will continue evaluating the data, refining solutions, implementing strategies that support both fiscal responsibility and continue service to residents.

As Director Long mentioned, and as you all know, this first quarter review doesn't always give the full picture of where we will end up at throughout the entire year.

However, we all know that a second quarter review gives even more data and information about decisions we should make for the future uh as well.

And so when we return with that second quarter review, we'll have a clear picture, picture of year and performance, a better picture and understanding of emerging trends, and a more complete view of the long-term solutions needed to ensure Columbus remains fiscally and financially strong.

Uh that second quarter review will provide even more the complete picture of where we are, where we're headed, and the actions necessary to close remaining gaps and position our city for long-term sustainability.

Until then, we respectfully ask for the opportunity to continue doing this work that we were entrusted to do.

The people of Columbus deserve steady leadership.

They deserve disciplined decision making, they deserve thoughtful stewardship, and that is what they can expect from the Ginther administration.

We have a plan, we have a process, we have partnership that we believe with you all, and we have this.

So thank you all.

Look forward to your questions.

Uh thank you for that presentation from uh Chief Sims as well as Director Uh Long.

Open the floor to any questions from my colleagues.

Councilmember, um, who wants to go?

Just jump in.

Just go ahead.

Okay.

We're going in alpha order networks.

Um, Chief Sims, thank you.

Uh thank you, and thank you, Director Long for the presentation.

Um, I have a couple questions.

First, you know, what's interesting because I think um you talked about just changing practices and you know what's interesting because I see these hearings as almost like investor meetings, right?

Like everybody in the city of Columbus, you invest in the city through your taxes, whether we want to or not.

And here we are.

And so knowing where those tax dollars go and also understanding that if you at home are feeling the pinch, then obviously we're gonna be feeling the pinch.

And so yeah, just the same way you sit down as a family and say, let's look at our expenses, we need to sit down as a family and look at our expenses.

And so I appreciate a move to making things more transparent for folks so that they know where we are, if there's rumors or here, you know.

I I was just saying this before.

Um, in the absence of dialogue, we create our own narrative.

And so, in order to let folks know that we are cautious and we are optimistic, and we have a team and we have a plan, is good to let the people know, right?

And let our investors know.

So that's I'm gonna step off my soapbox now.

Okay, questions.

So, first of all, this implementation team that you talked about in terms of financing and looking at it.

Can you just talk a little bit about the frequency in which folks are meeting and what does that um what does decision making look like both on the front end and on the back end, and then also just and maybe council member or chairbanks saying you may want to step in.

And then also just and maybe council member or chairbanks, you may want to step in.

Just what is the frequency of communication then look like for us as we are looking at you know, then making decisions from our end from this group and recommendations that might come from council and then how we move forward?

Well, appreciate the question, and uh we'll look really excited about the work that this team is doing.

Um we've been gathered um really since I say the last year and a half or so, um, but more thoughtfully, maybe more meeting more frequently and and on a weekly basis.

And I'll let Director Long share more about what's coming out of those conversations.

I think that as we have pulled these various stakeholders together, financial team members from different departments, they're elevating their their conversations, their thoughts, their ideas, and potential solutions to be able to solve for challenges that may be happening not only in their department, but maybe other departments as well.

And what we're getting a chance to see is that he's always saying you know what?

Oh, there's this issue you're identifying in public service or at health.

Have you thought about this?

Can we think about doing this this opportunity differently?

Can we invest these dollars differently for the future?

And I think that's what's happening in these conversations that we're actually as we pull people to the table together.

Uh, one of the things I get teased about is like, you know, let's get us all on the same page.

So I well, I'm quick to have pull the meeting together and say, you know what, So I'll be talking separately, let's get in the same room together and have a conversation.

And those conversations we're having in this weekly meeting on Thursdays, uh, allow us to be able to uh decide assess not only where we are financially uh and be able to make game uh time timely decisions and take those information information back to departments in order to uh implement new procedures, policies, and practices.

Dr.

Long.

Yeah, th thanks, Councilmember.

Um, yeah, just connecting with what Chief Sims mentioned.

We we're meeting weekly, um, obviously engaging with uh Chair Banks and his team.

Um it's staffed by members of the administration, myself and and team, but also uh human resources, civil service, the mayor's office, um, in terms of how are we going to connect, right?

Um, the first is going to be an official report that we submit to council in connection to with the plan that we want to submit, right, by the end of July.

Um I've just now started um and it's been a great um connect that I've started to have with our our new auditor, Lewis.

We're grateful to have her on.

We just started up a cadence of meetings bi weekly, um, encouraged to also report to her and engage her in conversations going forward.

Um, and just in a nutshell, there's if if it has an impact on the general fund, this group is looking at it.

And I also want to just call out real quick, sorry to interrupt, um, because it was mentioned earlier that certain folks were not invited to the table to have this conversation.

Uh I'm a big believer in the people administration knows that um we want you to be a part of the conversation because we're all busy people.

And so we're always gonna invite people to a conversation where it's like, you know what, we have a question for the auditor.

Please join us because something that's come up in our conversations that we want to be able to address with you.

And so there's never going to be a point in time where we're excluding anybody from the kind from the table of the conversation.

Should they hear about something?

Uh, should we be able to address something like reach out to us where we do the same same in the same way uh in order to make sure that we're all talking from the same language, identifying the same issues and challenges together.

So there are always gonna be opportunity for folks to join that table and discussion as we see it and identify opportunities for that as well.

And I would say um one thing that I've observed um during my time here on council, and you know, maybe this is part of when we're here for a while, we get a little comfortable in some of our you know, roles or whatever, is that there certainly was a it it felt as if there was a siloing of decision making.

And so one thing that I'm curious about is and and I'm not sure if you will have the answer for this, and it's a little complex, but how do we prioritize um uh you know, from department to department, you know, I think about and we've had conversations, I've had conversations with both of you about this, you know, um taking care of our buildings, right?

And making investments in our buildings and our assets, because later on, if we kick it down the road, we kick the can down the road.

Now we've got to build a new building instead of taking care of the building that we have.

You know, public service sometimes has to deprioritize some things because we're prioritizing something else in it in another department, right?

And these are all of these are important.

There's not one that feels more important than the other because at some point it's gonna become a bigger issue.

So I'm just curious to understand how we are prioritizing, especially those larger financial investments, especially now within this new structure that you have more insight and those silos seem to be broken down.

How are we going to pick and choose?

Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because it takes us back to the North Star.

Um when, you know, uh big believer in that in order for us to have conversations, we all gotta understand where we're coming from and where we're starting from as well.

And so when we took the time to set out that roadmap, it was very strategic in a sense of like how do we identify the key priorities internally and externally to the city to help us focus in and demonstrate where we need to invest dollars?

We know that housing is a challenge on our community, safety, mobility, you know, internally, how do we address operations, culture?

Uh those are the ways in which those key frameworks are what we look to to make key decisions on those investments as well.

And so when you talk about prioritizing, we always start there.

Is like what area is this impacting?

Uh I have to tease our followers because we have these big old spreadsheets uh that really tells us tell us a breakdown uh not only those priorities, but the goals that are happening in the departments and the programs associated with them as well.

The budgetary item is how what we're investing in those areas as well.

Because we got a chance to be able to see, okay, we're spending X amount of dollars for this program.

Where is that aligned?

And where does that fit into our priority list?

And so that's how we're making decisions for where we're to invest out both now and in the future as well.

And is that last question, Councilmember Graham?

I promise.

Um I I no, this is finance.

I was about to say I am the highest to.

Come on, geek outward, let's go.

It's not Congress, we don't have a lot of people.

Thank you, thank you.

Um I will yield my time certain time.

Um does this feed into that three-year financial plan?

So will we also be able to give insight to folks in terms of what does that look like?

So for example, if we are deciding we're not going to prioritize this big capital improved or capital budget, whatever.

If we're not going to make this investment over here, are we doing it over here?

Are we doing it in three years or two years?

And will we able to give insight to folks into what that looks like?

Short answer, because I know we gotta go to the next question.

Yes.

Um, and uh part of this is also uh assessment of said programs and industries as well.

You know, no longer can we continue to afford to keep doing the same thing and expecting the same outcome.

We got to look hard look at our our programs, what we're investing in, and really reevaluate whether or not this is something that actually is moving the needle in a certain area.

So, yes, yes, yes, all this conversation happening, and it will impact and influence that three-year financial plan as well.

Great.

And I look forward, maybe I'll pop into one of those Thursday meetings and Councilmember Green, I yield my the rest of my time to you.

Thank you.

I think Councilmember Reamy actually has to leave.

So he's he said he has a quick question.

Yeah, just to come everyone's yielding.

Just a couple of questions here.

Um at the remaining gap that that's there for the 15 million, how do you believe that that will be a closed from reductions on anything like services to the people?

Um is it possible there could be layoffs, that sort of thing?

Oh, thanks, Councilmember Reemy.

And you know, I think what we need time, right, to look at how the second quarter financial review comes out.

I mean, the size of the deficit is going to be indicative of the measures that we we need to take.

Um I can tell you this.

Uh there's no discussion of layoffs in any of the conversations that we're having.

So there would be other measures that we would bring to bear.

The gap closing plan comes, you're saying by the end of July, but we probably won't get the second quarter review until August.

Would that be correct?

Well, we're gonna do we're gonna ramp it up.

So we may not officially announce or uh publish a second quarter financial review, but we will have clear enough line of sight to communicate with council about what we believe that gap to be.

So it may not officially go out until August, but we will report what we believe it to be uh to council by the end of the month.

Okay, that's fair.

Yes.

Um 6.1 million in adjustments already, how much of that is recurring savings versus one-time transfers, fund shifts, or just delayed spending.

Sure.

Yeah, uh, thanks again for the question.

So the the one time uh would be mobility.

That's the shift to enterprise fund.

And then on items like the fleet fund transfer and shifting that towing costs of the mobility fund when we do that type of thing, we're solving some pressure on the general fund, but are we putting that on to a different fund?

Sure.

No, again, great question, Councilman Reemy.

So again, with with the fleet fund balance, though those aren't those should be refunded back to divisions and departments.

We we shouldn't be carrying a large deficit.

It means we're overrecouping the cost of fleet.

Um in terms of mobility enterprise fund, they have uh a strong ending projected cash balance uh through 2027.

So uh we certainly don't think that that's a cost that they couldn't bear at this point in time.

And then finally, um what opportunities do you see that exist for that are most promising, you know, from regular is it you know, growth in regular income tax, or what is it that could be the most promising to generate additional revenue?

Oh, to uh generate additional revenue, sir, or I I would defer that to Auditor Lewis on the revenue side.

Good point.

Do you have a opinion on that?

I'm sorry, I completely missed the question.

I I was just asking, like what outside of you know, just general tax revenues or anything that looks promising for additional revenue for the city.

I mean, no, we have not identified any additional new funding sources or one time funding sources.

I couldn't you your mic's not on clean.

Can you hear me now?

Oh, yeah.

Is that better?

Yes.

Okay.

Um to your question, we have not identified, my office has not identified any additional or new revenue sources, whether one time or reoccurring, that would enhance the revenues that we currently have access to.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I have.

Appreciate you.

Can I just add one thing to the first part of your question as it related to um you know potentially like layoffs?

You know, one of the things that I want to refer back to is when we propose this budget, we intentionally did not uh thank you.

You welcome I spoke a big little loss.

I didn't want to be coming at you too hard.

Um we intentionally and thoughtfully uh built the budget to not include any layoffs.

You know, we we believe in the importance of under ensuring that we can employed our our people here at this city.

And so just know that um at that time we weren't considering it, and at this point in time is not being considered as considered as well.

However, you know, as we continue to have these meetings weekly and the finance committee, all things are being discussed.

And so I don't want this body to um believe that we're not there are not things on the table.

I think given the the this the the situation we're in right now, and as Director Erickson mentioned earlier, like cities across the country are are pursuing a number of uh uh solutions and opportunities to to balance their budget, and everyone has a unique situations that they're facing those communities.

And so we're doing our part to assess accordingly how Columbus should respond to the state we're in right now as well.

Councilmember Green.

Thank you, Chair.

Um well, I appreciate um I appreciate you guys for being here, and thank you so much for sharing um all of this information.

I know um, Chief Sims, I'm uh grateful for the invit invitation for collaboration.

I um I'm a little bit frustrated with some of the remarks you made about how you know there is there should be no conversation about how you know these issues haven't been discussed.

This is the first time I'm hearing of a roadmap.

Um I think you had leaned over and said you had never heard of it.

So I'm excited to see that there is a roadmap or that there's a guiding star.

You know, I'm frustrated because I feel like we sit together every month across the couch from one another, and I'm constantly throwing out ideas or you know, bringing proposals of how to close some of these gaps and take care of to your point our most important asset, which is our people.

Um, and this is the first that I have seen this roadmap.

So I'm excited to hear this work has been ongoing for so long.

Um question.

Um as we are looking at budget deficits, I think um, you know, trying to think of things that like the big picture.

The idea is to be able to plan and identify early in advance for any shortfalls that we we might have so that we can react to them.

Um I it is my uh very deep belief that it is the primary role of local government of any government is to ensure the welfare of its constituency.

Uh right now, you both mentioned over and over again that people across our community are struggling to get by.

We know that it is definitively true.

Businesses are struggling to keep their doors open, as is our own.

Um while I don't think the city um should have to be the payer of first resort, we are most certainly the last resort uh given the current political context that we find ourselves in at the state and the federal level, given the financial constraints that are limiting access to philanthropic dollars that have always existed for our partners that do our most important and hardest work, uh keeping people fed, keeping people housed, uh ensuring they don't starve to death in their homes or freeze to death outside in the winter.

Um every year since I've been on council, um, I've received a proposed budget that has included cuts uh to that has included a proposed funding amount for the community shelter board that would result in the family center closing or shelters closing their doors or warming centers not being funded.

Uh last year we received a proposed budget that included a one million dollar cut to elevate, uh, which we were able to restore.

Those dollars that we were able to restore both of those years don't go far enough to meet the need.

Um, even if all is fine and dandy here at the city, we need to be make making adjustments so that we can do more.

Um so as you're thinking about uh planning for deficits, as you're calculating what deficits we might be receiving or we might be expecting come that second quarter report or towards the end of the year.

Are you including the full $15 million allocation of CSB?

Uh, which is my belief is not discretionary.

Uh it is our duty and obligation to ensure uh that we fund that last night line of defense for our neighbors.

Are you including the funding that we deliver to our tax exempt businesses that help feed and clothe um and care for our neighbors?

Or is that not included in that calculation that would tell us whether or not we have a deficit.

So um I just want to make sure I understand Councilor Green, and thanks for the question.

Uh just to clarify, are you are you asking whether the committee is considering cuts to discretionary contracts in 2026 as a way to close the gap?

I'm I'm I'm asking whether you would consider that even an indicator of we can't pay these things, therefore we have a deficit.

Um and then yes, then the next question would be are those things that are up for consideration, or I would argue they should absolutely not be up for consideration for being cut.

So I'll I'll jump in here.

Um the amendments you all made, which I think you were speaking to at this moment, are included in the budget.

So the $15.5 million dollars is beyond what's already been committed to based on the budget and those amendments.

It's important to note that um we can as you make decisions, um, it's important that we think about one decision impacts another.

So we can choose to make investments in areas of our community with that decision, the basic side of the coin is that that means we got to make decisions to not invest services internally as well.

So we've had some conversations about public safety.

You know, as we've gone through the this process and as we proposed the budget last year, we shared the mayor shared um with this body as he released the budget that should resources become available, here's how we should invest those dollars.

And it was opportunities for human services, uh, education initiatives, public safety as well.

And as we go on through that amendment process, this body chose to make certain decisions that all seem to add to those certain things being invested.

However, when those things happen when those discussions happen and when those amendments are made, it impacts our ability to continue to best in other areas of the city as well.

As we're sharing, the revenues are not where they used to be.

And of our resources, or we're spending a lot more.

And so I think it's important to note that as we make decisions, there's always gonna be an impact on the other side of that, and just know that's areas we continue to assess and discuss.

I mean, continue to not only as we see these deficits and balancing the budget, but those are things we have to understand as we and you all make decisions around budget this budget items as well.

Well, and I think that's why it's a little um it's a little uh troubling not knowing about the framework because if there's a framework that exists that's guiding how we're investing as a city, and we're ultimately the ones that are the decision makers about what and ultimately gets invested in, and we don't know what tools we're supposed to be using to evaluate requests that come before us, um, that then there's like a misalignment there.

Um so we want to make sure that we're being collaborative and being good partners and supporting wise smart investments with the limited resources that we have all rowing in the same direction.

To be fair, this information has been shared along the way as we've been doing it.

We specifically briefed uh council president hard and chairbanks in on this work as well.

So it's been no surprise or secrets to other members of this body.

Um can you, I'm assuming as part of this process you are working through doing a deep dive and evaluating how every disdepartment is spending their resources correct, you know, where is every dollar going, you know, really being thorough in the evaluation.

I'd sent over some questions in advance.

I was hoping that I might I imagine this would be something you'd be looking at already.

Um, but if not, hopefully um you were able to find some answers to those questions across um all of our various departments.

Um, how much money are we spending every year uh contracting services with outside consultants?

So, yeah, Councilman Green, thanks again for the question.

Um we absolutely can pull that uh data for you.

We didn't have an opportunity to get it ready for today's hearing, but and we can work with your office to get clarifying, but just maybe clarity around what that means in terms of like we have a not to get too too in the weeds here, but we have a line item in our accounting system.

We can pull professional services contracts.

Not all of them are like consulting in nature.

So absolutely we can get that to you, but just wanted to get more clarity that around what exactly you were looking for there.

I mean, I think that I think that we um I have seen uh contracts that I know that I have seen on the agenda recently, talking about communication and marketing, uh consulting services, talking about community outreach and consulting work.

I see this a lot most frequently with things like Blueprint Columbus or things where uh you know outreach is required.

I see that as an opportunity for us to be working with our collective bargaining units.

I want to save every city job possible.

I do not want to make sure uh I do not want to see us lose any jobs either.

I share that that goal and priority with the mayor.

Um, but but that might mean that maybe we have to work smarter and not harder.

Maybe we have to figure out how we can partner with our partners in labor to make reasonable modifications to work duties and hours so that way we can stop, you know, uh hiring out work to contractors that our own city staff are more than capable to do.

I think one thing that is really um exciting about the way that the city does hiring um is that we pay really competitive wages compared to other, you know, compared to the county compared to the state, and we do that because we want to be able to hire and retain the top talent um to help lead our city forward.

And then so often I see us not using that talent.

We need to hire an outside consultant to tell us uh to to feed them information to regurgitate it back to us and tell us uh how to solve a problem we already are capable of solving on our own.

And so I think that um, you know, during this time, that's a real opportunity for us to think about how we can save um how we can save some money.

Do we have any um understanding currently?

Um, you know, particularly I think the when I'm thinking about um jobs, we all saw during the pandemic who an essential worker was, right?

And so our frontline staff, our public health workers, I see, you know, or ask me our CWA employees, our um our firefighters, our police officers, those frontline folks.

Do we have um any understanding of our current staff to management span of control ratios?

Do we have any targets?

You know, how many managers do we have across the city compared to every frontline worker?

I'll jump in here.

Um at this point in time, we don't have that information, but as Director Long mentioned in his presentation, there was a line item there that talked about uh organizational capacity assessment.

Uh, what you're speaking to is being able for us to be able to take a look at um how we're structured as organization and what makes the most sense based upon uh supervisors' numbers and how many employees are supervising as well.

And so know that as part of our uh ongoing work with the finance committee, this is an area where we're gonna look more dive more into as we begin to um uh go through a process of the natural attrition, how do we realign offices, departments, divisions to ensure that we're getting the most the most optimal uh work out of folks, but also not sacrificing uh the greater good of our community and the uh the basic services as well.

Yeah, and I mean I think even as you're thinking about that, centralizing communications teams, we have different communications teams all across the city, centralizing procurement uh is an easy one that I think places are doing around the United States, even looking at some of those larger purchases of police and fire vehicles.

Can we purchase those in bulk on a regular cadence with some of our neighboring municipalities?

Um just some ideas.

If I can just if I could just interject really quickly, hold that question.

Okay.

Um our virtual council member texts me.

He has to jump off.

So I want to make sure we get his questions answered if you can hold that last question.

Uh President Clinton Dorns.

Uh thank you, Chair.

I I appreciate it.

I've got to deal with a kid emergency here in a little bit.

Um so wanted to sort of pose this question to to the administration here.

And I appreciate uh Chief Sims talking about the framework that's been established.

I think one of the frustrations that many of us in large bureaucracies have is that oftentimes the the left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing.

You don't get the best outcomes when you're dealing with those kind of gaps in you know, again, just the natural flow of the bureaucracy sometimes not meeting itself together.

So wanted to ask you a question with a very specific example in mind about how this framework uh is meant to eliminate that, which would hopefully get us to a place where we have less budgetary consequences.

You know, we have planned for the opening of Fire Station 36 for a number of years.

I think it goes back in the capital improvement budget back to 2016.

However, you know, we're opening that station this past week, and you're talking about this framework had being utilized over the last several years, and yet we're in a position where you know that fire station is gonna going to be almost exclusively staffed utilizing overtime, which has fairly serious uh financial implications.

So if you could just walk us through how that framework sort of addresses a situation like that, given that we've you've been talking you're talking about this as the framework that uh you know the mayor has challenged you all and the senior team to review the last several years.

And we've known this fire station was going to come online and have this framework would uh either impart it into this situation or in future situations like it.

Yeah, I uh appreciate the question, uh uh Councilmember Dorans.

And one of the things I I want to make sure we had uh folks here from uh public safety at fire to really ultimately address something you just mentioned, which uh want to be able to correct the narrative on that.

Uh Fire Station 36 is not being uh funded uh by overtime.

And so I we have some folks here from FIRE who can address that.

But beforehand, uh it's your question around um uh the framework.

Um I believe the the station began to be designed in 2022 uh and the construction.

Begin in 24, really when this framework began.

And so work was already underway that related to uh fire station 36.

And so I think it's important to note that as new things come on board, this is why we have this framework in place to be able to assess accordingly about how we continue to make investments for our city and for the future as well.

Uh so we're prepared to uh operate a fire station 36.

And so if there's someone here from fire who can come to the mic and address this question, I'd be grateful for their support.

President Harden, uh City Council, thank you for taking the time to hear from me.

And uh just to clarify some points about fire station 36 staffing, uh fire station 36 is staffed just like every other firehouse.

We have personnel that are assigned there, and then based on what happens to the individual, whether they're out for training, they're off on Kelly Day, they're off on vacation or sick leave, then we might be able to move someone in to cover the gap, or we may have to call in over time.

So yeah, I'd like to entertain some questions if you if you have any.

Well, it if I may, I mean, this has been, I think, a subject of discussion, I think, ongoing with the finance committee for a number of months, as we saw, you know, the this fire station coming online.

And I think during those discussions, uh, there was an expectation that this would be significantly staffed by overtime.

So I appreciate the that certainly if that narrative is different, but we still certainly again going back to my points earlier, have fewer firefighters uh now than we did certainly a number of years ago.

And I think when we look at the staffing levels with a recruit classes coming online this year in December, uh that sort of puts us behind that eight ball.

So again, I think, you know, uh this is new information, which I get which certainly is positive with regard to the fiscal impact.

But I think going back to this framework, um, I I think these are exactly the kind of situations where we would want this kind of thing deployed uh over a multi-year process when we again go back to having things in the capital improvement budget, then we're in we're in design, then we're in construction, and then we're bringing something online that has operational cost from um from a you know worker standpoint.

So um appreciate the the new information here, but you know, I think this is this is a prime example of wanting to see this kind of thing get uh you know more ingrained in our bureaucracy, and uh hopefully we'll we'll see more of this in the future.

Thank you, uh Council President.

Do you have any second?

No, no questions for for safety.

Oh Chief, um, is it not true though?

We did not hire any new officers for this station.

So we are uh I'm sorry, Chipa or Chiefs Sims, which are lots of chiefs over here.

Uh so we are pulling officers.

We are our firefighters from other stations, correct?

And we are placing them at this station, which then is inevitably going to cause overtime in the other stations that have those vacancies that need to be filled.

Is that correct?

These are not new hires, new officers that are able to fill these positions.

They're all people that are coming from other firehouses.

The collective bargaining agreement allows for transfers from station to station four times a year.

And then we opened up the bidding process for station 36 in the first quarter of this year, and then we had people that were transferred to that station, but of course they didn't work there because it wasn't open yet.

So they were utilized in other staffing positions.

So we expanded the authorized strength for officers, which are the supervisor positions that was legislated in this year's operating budget.

So we increased our authorized strength and promoted those individuals to captain and lieutenant.

And then as firefighters are onboarded through recruit training and then implemented into the daily staffing model.

Right.

But but what I'm saying is it's a little misleading in my opinion to say, you know, oh, this is it is in I I believe it is factually inaccurate to say that this whole station is going to be operated by overtime.

What I am saying is we didn't hire a station's worth of of new officers and we were or of new firefighters, and we were already running behind on uh that workforce as it was.

And so we are gonna have vacancies or you know, people are moving from other stations, are moving here, which is going to create an increased need in our other stations for overtime, as those positions won't be filled until the end of the year when the new class comes in.

Yeah, those those positions, uh fire department staffing is very dynamic and complicated, simple to us, but hard for other people to understand.

Um President Harden may understand because his family works in the fire department, but um the as people come on, you know, it's it's dynamic as the year as the year progresses.

So to say that it's just station 36 that's generating the overtime is not the complete story.

I I certainly don't think that it's just station 36.

I think before station 36, we already had an overtime problem because our workforce wasn't fully staffed enough to keep uh meeting as people were leaving, keep meeting the need for uh for workers, and then you know, this adds to that burden where if we were already understaffed uh to meet the threshold where we wouldn't have these overtime challenges.

Now we have a whole new fire station that is not at we're not adding any new firefighters um but is being staffed fully now itself, leaving even more challenges at the other ones, I think.

I think is the concern, and I think that is what council president pro tem was trying to um get to the root of.

Right.

President Harden.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Councilmember Bankston, our chair banks, and I apologize.

Thank you for holding this hearing.

Certainly thank you to the administration for being here uh for um presenting uh this strategic road map um for the future.

So I do want to go back to the passage of the 2026 budget, and uh at that final hearing, I said for us not to end the year with a structural deficit imbalance that there was going to be have to have to be a lot of hoping, wishing, and praying for us to get there.

I've heard the chief uh say several times that this new framework is allowing them to act early, act you to act early to solve for uh the issues that we are seeing today.

My question is are what did we not predict in terms of where we are right now uh in terms of uh a deficit and what do we think, what do we hope and wish and pray will happen between now and uh July 31st that would make this any better.

Yeah, thank thank you, uh President Harden.

Um so I I guess a couple um thoughts.

One, um the work of the committee did bring some additional measures to bear on on the Q1 financial report that I outlined around you know, MCP and fleet um cost savings around vacancies and and uniforms, it helped us close some of that gap.

Um we did certainly have a goal that Chief Sims established for uh overtime.

Um but that was a goal that was based in data.

Um we had significant, I think roughly 18% reduction in overtime from 2024 to 2025.

And so while it was aspirational, it it was not hopes and dreams with all due respect.

Um and the work continues and this committee is going to have a clear line of sight as we move through the year.

Um again the second quarter financial review will really provide a lot more uh insight in that area.

Um and appreciate the question.

Um and I think as we are are managing an enterprise of this size, I think we all know it's hard to see every single thing or anticipate every single thing that may come our way.

But however, as we had conversations with former auditor Kilgore, um we we kind of knew what was coming down the pipeline.

We knew that um our our expenses were growing at a rate higher than our revenues and and really sound the alarm even often as we had conversations you know with this body about what it may look like to as we increase the workforce or the pay for individuals as well throughout this time uh time too.

And so uh the work of this committee continues to assess and evaluate again on a weekly basis, the things that come up so there are way there that there are not any surprises.

And again, appreciate uh customer banks and chairbanks and his team for being a part of that process because our hope and goal is that you know those conversations and concerns you know get elevated to you all uh as well, so that way any solutions, ideas, uh frameworks that this body proposes as well can come back to that group to be able to discuss and have a collective approach to this is moving forward.

So thank you.

No, that's that that is fair, and you know, I I I do too, I think agree with you and maybe the administration that or I will say this that because other we are not the only city that is going through these financial challenges, we're growing faster than our our wages are.

I think that a lot of folks, a lot of cities will look at us and say that we are in an enviable uh situation.

And so I don't think this is a structural issue.

I too agree with you, Chief, that this is a leadership issue because these issues that we are seeing uh to your point did not just pop up.

And my my question, so my next question is as we identify so the next six weeks, so it sounds like we should council should expect another report in six weeks with an actual plan on how to close out the the year that will close these gaps.

I'm excited about that plan.

I think that everybody it will give everyone um uh the comfort that we will get through and close the budget.

We will always end our budget balance.

My question is what are the tools, not what is the plan, what are the tools you are looking at to close those but that that that budget in six weeks?

And I will lead you, I will lead the questioning because I I don't want to keep going back and forth.

And I said this in my opening, every day that goes by that again this thing, this gap doesn't magically fix itself, means that the responses have to be that more much more draconian.

We we have I check 14 pay weeks left.

And and let me be very clear, as someone whose mother gave 28 years to this city, whose family works for this city right now, I care more about um our employees than as much as anyone else.

These are people's lives and their livelihoods and and the last time I I will uh quote Chief Sims, clarity is kindness.

If, God forbid, if we were to have to go down a road where we would have to tell some of our folks that they would not be able to be with us by the end of the year, the clarity would be the kind thing to do, not the surprise in August or or or whenever we would say it.

So as you are, and and and again, one of the things that I am crossing again, I I'm I'm with you guys on this hoping and praying thing that you guys that I think that some of this budget is that there is another option out there.

There are other tools out there that will get us to cover at least a $15 million gap, but potentially larger than that.

Are the what are the tools?

What are the other tools that we are considering?

Uh again, thanks, President Harden.

I uh I will say this.

I mean, layoffs are not something that we're currently contemplating.

Um we are looking at all available options that can make a can move the needle as it as you would say on with respect to general fund expenditures.

But I'm just not in a position yet to offer up what those are because we don't under we don't know the magnitude of the issue we may have to solve.

And we certainly gonna continue the cost savings measures, sir, that we already have in place.

So those will continue.

Yes.

I'm glad to hear you you're excited about what we can share here in a few weeks.

Um because we are as well.

I mean, I as I as I mentioned earlier and shared, and as you all know, this is a very complex organization.

And as you all know, things can change from one day to the next.

And so uh we're relying on just some innovative ideas that I'll be frank and just share that uh I think we'll all as we're considering them right now and studying still could be helpful to all of us in the long run.

And so uh as I asked you all earlier would appreciate uh the the respect to allow us to continue to study these opportunities, um, because that way we'll be able to more with more clarity uh share in a few weeks um how we will truly navigate this this space where we are right now for the better for our city in the long run.

We certainly will not just give you the space that is yours as as the administration, but we also will expect transparency and accountability along the way.

And the reason and the the the why I am asked why I think what again, why I'm grateful that everyone is here in good faith having a conversation around the uh good stewardship of our city is that this council still has two more councils before we go on recess, and some of the decisions that we may have to make financially over these next two council meetings may be impacted by the information that we did or did not have today, uh including what is the impact on um you know uh different capital expenditures that are going out.

Those are very current and relevant conversations.

And that that was actually a conversation question that I did have for the the auditor because as council ways, how we not just close this budget gap, because I do think that what we're what we really are talking about are two different issues.

We're talking about a gap this year, which if anybody was around 12 14 years ago, we've had much bigger gaps.

Uh when the 2010 recession was a I I was around, it was that was not this, but it was a gap.

Um but we do also have because next week we have a hearing on firefighter apparatuses.

We have a long-term, and I think that that the roadmap is really what that is trying to solve for.

Is that is that correct?

Like the Well, yeah, and then one of the things I I uh did didn't call out, I want to be uh make sure it gets mentioned in this conversation as well, not specifically to this, but just so you all have it for this body as well.

Um, because overtime has come up quite a bit in the discussion today, and you know, the mayor and myself have have continued to uh you know push the charge through Director Pashadi through the chiefs of police and and fire to really be thoughtful uh and strategic about the process, procedures, and what opportunities exist to address um fire police over time.

As Director Long mentioned, you know, the data had shown us over the last few years that that number was decreasing.

Y'all know I'm an athlete, so I'm on push people to be but competitive and do things and and stretch themselves.

And so that was the the nexus behind that.

But but with all this is that even today, uh the next meeting I have with the police to really dive deep into studying you know what's happening in our process procedure that's that's keeping us from getting to that next level of uh savings and our police overtime.

That meeting for fire happens on Monday, same meeting.

And so by the time we come back to you all in July, you'll have information about that information as well.

And so just know that there are multiple things that are happening right now in the midst of the season that we believe that will help us not only address some short-term solutions but also the long-term planning for our city as well.

Thank you so much.

Um, one of the things I stated in uh opening.

Lewis.

Auditor Lewis.

It was that continuity.

You know, we only had what, seven auditors uh I apologize.

Uh Auditor Um Lewis, as I stated, and I and I think we I speak for the the city, not just the council, but it is our top responsibility, our goal to keep our triple A bond rating.

It would be um uh it would be so short-sighted of us not to do everything in our power to make sure that we keep that triple A bond rating so that not just future generations uh don't pay more for the City of Columbus, but even us today.

So as we look at how some of the the tactics the administration uses to um work through these current issues, some of them like tapping into the it's of the income tax set aside, uh what is that fund supposed to be set aside to do and what impact does that have on our capital capacity?

And I and again I'm trying to ask to advise my council even of how we should be looking at each capital ask even in the next two council meetings before we go on break, given where we are right now, if our not if and our top goal is to um show fiscal restraint so that we are in a good strong place for the triple A bond rating.

Council President Harden, thanks for the question.

Um so candidly, you I think this was alluded to in remarks earlier.

Uh growing over reliance on it uh is a um a move in the opposite direction with respect to our historical conservative fiscal management.

Uh as you all know, there's a policy that those dollars, 25% of the income tax is goes into that fund for the purpose of funding capital improvements, and the more that additional uh cost are moved into that fund or funded out of that fund reduces the capacity for what we can finance uh in terms of capital improvements in future years, as well as it impacts the the ratio of coverage that you see in that fund in terms of our ability to cover debt service.

Right now we are really up against the line uh with respect to that, and there are some additional improvements coming down the pike, as you all know, that are going to uh impact our overall debt portfolio.

So we have the fourth water plant that um has a pretty big big sticker price on it, and we are looking at that in connection with just some of the other improvements that the departments need collectively, those things put pressure on our overall uh debt portfolio.

Uh so again, a lot of it has to do with with fiscal conservatism, and historically we have managed it in a very fiscally conservative way.

If I can just add and I'll let Director Long speak for this as well.

Um we agree with council and the auditor that while using it as an acceptable part of city code to address budgetary uh constraints, it's not a long-term solution.

And so uh this is where it's why it's important where our finance management team is actually working with that finance committee to really assess and understand for even internally and outside experts to deliver maybe even better long-term solutions for addressing this.

So, Director Long, you want to just share a little bit more?

Yeah, just uh just a couple um elements to this, just wanted to provide clarity on.

Um up until 2023, we used it to cover tipping fees uh for roughly two decades.

Um they were removed in 2023.

We brought those back, I believe, last year and again this year.

Um so there is there is a uh precedent for us using it for direct expenditures for those types of things.

Um we do, as mandated by code, have to cover debt service before any direct expenditures can come from it.

So there's a waterfall.

This was recently implemented um by council in 2023.

Um so it's mandated that all debt service, including lease obligations, um, have to be covered before we can make any expenditures out of there.

And so we we obviously honor that.

Um also no personal expenditures uh can be uh you can be utilized by it's so that was another uh a framework or guardrail that council adopted in 2023 to sort of safeguard that fund.

Um and so there, you know, I I feel like there certainly is fiscal conservatism that's already baked into that structure.

Um we obviously make sure that we can honor you know our debt service commitments.

Councilmember Green.

Um I I had I had a couple of other questions, but I think I'm gonna I I think I'm gonna just reply to a comment that was made earlier before that last question.

Um, you know, uh I will say some things I'm curious about, recognizing that we're currently on a hiring freeze for only essential personnel.

You know, I also believe we've hired a lot of new employees since the start of the year.

Do you have that number?

How many of Yeah, thank thanks, Councilmember Green.

Um it's 40 for the administration, 23 for other elected, so 63 total.

Yeah.

And then what's the process for determining what is essential?

Like, for example, I just went on the city's job portal before this meeting just to get a sense of what was there.

And I saw several six-figure salary positions for director of financial strategy and operations and of director of evaluation and impact, and I don't I don't know what that means, or is it essential for our current moment and time?

Sure.

Um so a couple things on that, and thanks again for the question.

Um we have a process where mayor's office um in cooperation with finance and human resources evaluates every single uh hiring justification that goes through.

Um the the key element is to safeguard basic city services.

So some of those are direct.

It's you know, the uniform police, fire, um 911 operators, etc.

Some are in support roles.

For example, fleet may not be frontline, but they repair the vehicles that serve frontline refuse operators, et cetera.

So it it's all through a lens of ensuring that even positions that may not on the surface look like they're protecting um city services are supportive in that role.

Um and then Chief Ed.

Yeah, and I'll just jump in here.

And it may already be mentioned, but every single um job position comes through our office through me.

And so um that can sometimes be a daunting task to approve every single position.

Um, but in a time like this, we believe it's necessary to really monitor and assess and ask tough qu the questions of departments to say, is this really needed right now?

And so to know that those discussions happen again every Thursday in our leadership team meeting around um the the hiring justifications we receive, we talk through them and assess and report by departments which ones we believe are essentially to the city business at this time.

Uh appreciate you also mentioning um the one of the least the roles, one of those is is for uh celebrate one.

Uh the other is really to uh it's an innovative uh idea that we believe will help our city in the long run.

Uh this director uh uh of additional director of finance that will be in the mayor's office uh is really going to assist not only us, this committee about the finance to really diving deep into departmental practices, policies, procedures.

These folks are managing the budget every single day.

And we recognize based on their own capacity that we need additional person to dive deep into understanding how we purchase, how we can improve those processes.

Frankly, what's sitting on the shelves in departments that really can not be sitting there?

Uh, how do we better align our our um um contracts uh and how do we create more enterprise contracts to save us dollars as well?

So and we we budgeted for this.

Um we saw the foresight the last year to include this in our budget for this year to ensure that we can uh have a person on board to really assist us and our directors in thinking innovatively about how we can again reassess, realign, uh improve processing procedures across all departments, so it helps think help us think differently around uh those investments for the future.

Is it is it um is it true that a role was recently added to the mayor's office, um, that a large part of their portfolio or most of their portfolio is going to be focused on women's sports.

That is that is not true.

Um we have folks uh across our our office who have a number of duties and responsibilities from and that would be to women's sports, that could be towards external affairs initiatives, that can be towards helping assist our finance team, our various harmments.

So that is not true that there is a sole person in our office who's just responsibility to manage women's sports.

Okay.

Um, I I'm looking forward to hearing from the January the July report out.

I think you know, one thing that I just want to say is that even if even if uh the best case scenario occurs, um, I think that for the time that we are living in right now, the way that the city has been operating year after year after year is not working for normal people.

Um I think that you know, one in three kids in my neighborhood go to bed hungry every night.

And I think that most people on the hilltop and other neighborhoods that are struggling uh care a little bit less about you know someone showing up on time to pick up the trash in front of their house every week and care a little bit more about how they're gonna feed their families.

What does it matter if we show up on time every week if there's nothing in the trash can because keep people don't have food?

And again, I'll just reiterate you know, even if we don't end up at the end of this year with um the deficit that right now I feel as if we're trending towards uh what we do know is that our schools just had to cut 50 million dollars and they're probably gonna have to cut another 50.

We've got a 200 million gap for human services and the and the community shelter board services um, you know, in order to make those safety nets whole.

We've got families that are struggling to keep a roof over their head, keep their utility bills paid, keep food on the table for their families.

Um, and we have an obligation to do more.

Thank you.

Thank you uh to um my colleagues.

Are there any more questions before we go into the public speakers?

All right, seeing that we will move on to the public comment portion as of yesterday at 5 p.m.

Deadline will receive one request uh for in-person testimony from Will Harman, the president of AFSME Local 1632.

Uh Will to see you again, Mr.

President.

I think you know the drill, and I'll turn the podium over to you.

Afternoon, Chairman Bankston, President Horton, auditor, and administration.

Good afternoon.

My name is Will Harmon.

I am president of Aspen Local 1632, the union that represents City of Columbus workers.

Before I became president of our local, I worked in our Department of Public Utilities Division of Water since 2007.

I come before you today as a proud representative of our city workers because I believe we are the backbone of this city.

We show up day in and day out to make sure that the Greater Columbus area is safe is a safe, beautiful, and thriving place to be in.

We often do the unsung and unseen work no one wants to do, but everyone needs done, such as water treatment, waste management, street cleaning, and maintenance.

The list goes on.

We don't do this work to get rich.

We do this work because we believe in our community and making it the best it can be.

I have to say that recently I have been disheartened by budget discussions for our city before this council.

I continue I continue to hear proposals to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars every week, while our city workers have to fight for every single cent of a raise and inflation has us falling behind.

We are often told that the city budget is in a tough position, and yet we can always seem to find money for external third parties and contracts that prior that prioritize subcontractors over the very workers that show up every day to keep our great city running.

Today I ask this.

I asked our esteemed city council to remember the workers right here at home who make our city thrive.

Remember those of us who show up before sunrise to collect your garbage, who answer over a million annual 911 calls when people need help.

Remember those of us who plow the snow while you sleep so you can get to where you're going, who answer your emergency water and power calls in the middle of the night and on holidays so you can spend time comfortably with your loved ones.

Remember the labor that built this city with our own blood, sweat, and grit to ensure that Columbus is a place people want to visit and live in for decades to come.

Thank you for your time.

Appreciate you.

Any questions?

Any questions or comments for President Hartman?

Yeah.

I just wanted to say thank you.

I think you know, we've had conversations.

Uh many of your union members work in DPS, and um, I just want to say thank you for the work.

I think you know, this is um this is your absolutely correct that our lifeblood is our people, right?

And people make the city run.

And when I think about, you know what council member green was talking about.

I mean, we talk about hard issues every day here, and but people do want their trash and need their trash picked up and want that pothole that could bust your tire, that then you can't get to work, or it's you know, a cost that your family has to take care of.

They, you know, whether it's rain, sleet, or snow, our workers are out there in the dead of the heat, in the dead of the night, early in the morning.

And so I think that is certainly not lost on us.

And I think that as we you know, I I think every day we're up here making tough decisions that are for people, every decision that we make here is for people, both the people that live here and the people that work here, because they're they're all the same, right?

And so I appreciate you and your continued um advocacy to ensure that our folks get the things that they need and that they want.

This is why unions exist to ensure that people that can't always advocate for themselves have a system that does it for them.

And so I just want to acknowledge that I don't think that that is lost on us.

And I know I think about that all the time when I'm talking through legislation.

I always try to break down where does the money come from, where is the money going, how does this work for those reasons so that folks can at least understand some of those tough decisions and where the decision making comes from, especially when you know today?

I know that this is not a time that everybody can come down to City Hall.

People are gonna be watching this later.

Um, but I want to just ensure that as people are watching at home or as people have questions for yourself, for any of the members, for anyone who works at um City Hall or anywhere across the city, they can always reach out to us at any time so that we can continue these conversations and that we can work together to ensure that all of our people get the things that they need to take care of themselves and the people that they love.

I appreciate that.

If if our house is the one that's leaking, us putting a roof on our neighbor's house, and we'll fix our problem.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, President Hartman, you represent the best of us.

You've heard me say many times that uh we are somewhat the face, if you will, that folks see out in the community, but it is the 9,000 employees uh that work behind the scene that make the city run.

Uh so thank you for your service and for your leadership.

Appreciate it.

Well, I will uh go ahead and bring this uh hearing to a close.

I think we've heard uh a lot uh and a lot was discussed here today, and I think the number one thing we could take away from this is that this is complex, it is not uh simple.

Uh, I think one thing that has been put in context as well is that uh this is not unique to Columbus.

Uh I know before this uh I look at some other major cities, uh, just looking at even New York City alone, that in after their first quarter review is facing uh multi-billion dollar uh deficit.

So this is something that folks are grappling with all across the city.

Uh but what I will say is that I am committed to continuing to work uh that not only that we close this gap, but we look at the structural imbalance that we find ourselves in.

Uh, this is not necessarily a revenue issue.

Uh it is a structural imbalance that we have found ourselves in.

That uh as COVID happened as the city grew, uh, the resources that were undergirded that uh are no longer there.

And so we have to rebalance uh and restructure.

That restructuring does not necessarily mean uh that there is massive uh changes in personnel, sometimes that is rebalancing and looking at the structural of the city.

Where can we consolidate?

Where can we be more efficient?

Where can we think differently?

Uh and so as we look to address uh this uh deficit or projected deficit, I should say that we find ourselves in, we will meet that moment.

Uh we will meet the emergent need, and there is a sense of urgency.

And I hope that the administration hears that from my colleagues, that there is a sense of urgency to meet this moment now.

Uh but I also agree that sitting at a table to think about a broader future and looking at how we think about how the city operates to serve the residents of today, but also to serve the group that we know is coming, is also necessary.

Um so once again, I want to thank uh all of the folks that have come out this afternoon, our speakers, our presenters uh who have commented uh and having this honest dialogue.

Our current budgetary position, as I said, is a difficult one, but it is one that we can and will be solved.

You know, tough decisions are ahead.

Uh but as I've stated in the past, times like these require us to lean in and to take the challenge head on.

And let me just deviate from my notes really quickly and kind of double back.

I know as the finance chair when I worked with Auditor Kilgore as well as working with Auditor Lewis, it is I think all of our goal to make sure that we protect our AAA bond rating, but also protect uh the city's financial position.

And what I can tell you as being uh one of the only finance chairs that sat in the ratings agency calls and have conversations with them is that what makes Columbus different is not just simply the conservative policies, but it is the management style, how we collaborate, how we work together.

It is not that we have a deficit, it is not that we have financial strains that is the problem.

It is how we address them differently than any other city in this country.

That is what makes the difference.

That is what gives them confidence in the city of Columbus.

And so I want to make sure that we all uh get past the frustration, get past the disagreement, and understand that we will have to work together to address this, like we always have.

So again, thank you to the administration, again, thank you to my colleagues uh for oversight and asking the tough questions and continuing to push because it is necessary to have a push and pull.

It is necessary to have a dialogue, and it is necessary uh for us to ask the tough questions, particularly if we believe in this roadmap, particularly if we believe that we want to put our city in a better position to serve future generations, to serve Xavier Kamal Bankston, to serve Isaiah Bankston.

That is who we are fighting for today.

It's for the residents of the future uh and our residents of today.

Uh, so again, thank you to all my colleagues uh for being here.

Um I'm gonna go ahead and adjourn this hearing uh and thank you all.

Have a great uh day.