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.