The Evansville Common Council and Vanderburgh County Council convened a joint department budget review for fiscal year 2027 on August 26, 2026. The agenda header lists a 3:02 P.M. start; the supplied timestamp indicates 09:15:00 UTC. No minutes were available. The captured discussion consists of departmental budget presentations followed by council and board questions.
Levee Authority District (Mike Herke): Herke presented a mostly flat day-to-day operating budget. A $210,000 line item would update control panels at all 19 pump stations total, excluding the two being completed this year. He said doing all remaining panels together avoids a continuous replacement cycle.
Computer Services (Vernon Lutz): Lutz said the computer services account is essentially flat, with an apparent increase limited to the computer support line for which an RFP was outstanding when the budget was prepared. Excluding the RFP line, the budget showed a 2.30% reduction for 2027 because the original line item was heavy. He said each RFP vendor must include transition costs in year-one pricing. He also said the Trump administration has not yet provided additional funding; if that funding is not continued, it will end. A state agreement costs about $3,000 and is budgeted for next year when it runs out in April.
Area Plan Commission (Ron London): London described the usual rotation of three to four computers per year and a planned purchase of a plotter/scanner for his office and other departments because the current equipment is aging and causing issues.
Legal Aid (Kevin Gibson): Gibson said all line items were zeroed out except for a rent increase for the first-floor office, and he described this as his final budget.
Weights & Measures (Jacob Murphy): Murphy presented a flat budget with no increases.
Animal Control (Missy Mosby): Mosby said the shelter has not euthanized a single animal for space and reported 100 adoptions in July, which she believed was a record. She requested budget support for vaccinations, rescue disinfectant and cleaning supplies, and building repairs and maintenance. She noted the building authority is taking over building upkeep after the department moved out from under the Department of Transportation. ACOs currently lack training or certification, and she plans to pursue NACA and other certifications; Best Friends is providing a full-time employee for six months, with housing paid, to help set protocols. She confirmed housekeeping support comes from the county. Adoption fees are $157 for city dogs and $147 for county dogs, and $127 for city cats and $117 for county cats; the $10 difference covers a city license, and fostering is available. On dog food, she said she reached out to local manufacturers, but some do not sell to the public; she found a local supplier sourcing from one of the local companies.
Traffic Engineer (agenda lists Brian Mundy; transcript identifies Brian Lundy, city engineer, with Jennifer Blinkenship as traffic engineer): Lundy/Blinkenship said traffic engineering was placed under the city engineer's office last year and they were cleaning up accounts by splitting spending into separate line items. They discussed equipment training and safety gear, a five-year truck lease, the need for more than one bucket truck, the absence of a portable message board for traffic alerts, and relocation of traffic signal services from center-point poles.
Building Commission & Code Enforcement (Johnny McAlister): McAlister attributed the major budget increase to vehicle leases, including two additional vehicles next year. He said two positions were approved the previous day in connection with two longtime employees retiring at the end of the year.
Central Dispatch (Carrie James): James said human resources has been helping improve hiring and training practices. The next training class includes emergency medical dispatch and CPR certification. No additional positions were requested; the goal is to reach full staffing of 35 dispatchers. A council member asked whether current staff need additional medical-dispatch training and whether there was an additional cost not reflected in the budget.
Emergency Management (Cliff Weaver): Weaver said no new vehicles were requested, a couple of operations line items increased slightly, and the proposed budget is doable.
Human Relations Commission (agenda: Diane Clements-Boyd; transcript: Diane Clements Floyd): Clements-Boyd/Floyd said the commission hired a full-time education outreach coordinator, a position sought for many years. The position is supplemented by EEOC and HUD federal funds, with the city/county responsible for the remaining 20%.
Purchasing & M/WBE (Dachenae Streeter): Streeter said the department's primary role is to support other departments' procurement processes to ensure good stewardship of tax dollars.
Okay. Let's call the city of Evansville Common Council, Vandenberg County Council, Joint Department budget review for fiscal year 2027 to order. Seeing none? No. Glad to be here. Me too. And thank you all for coming. Okay, we start out with joint department. The budget reviews levy authority, Mike. Good afternoon. As far as my budget, there hasn't been a whole lot of changes this year or for next year. Just you know, as the bills change, you know, for vectoring and stuff or center point, you know, the rates change. So we've had to add a few a little bit in there for that. Um everything else pretty much stays the same. Um we did add for next year in the capital improvements. Um sorry. Uh we're looking to do uh around 30,000 for um attachments for our vent track. It's a piece of equipment that we use to uh help with vegetation along the levees and the the greenways uh just to help control vegetation. It's just a few more attachments that'll help in day-to-day operations of using it. Um then uh 210,000, which is to update the control panels in all all of our pump stations. So the control panels that are in there, a lot of the equipment that's that they use to run the system are are starting to age out as far as being able to get the equipment anymore and to be able to get those pieces repaired. So we're having to update everything to be able to keep using the the uh automatic pumping station part of it. So that's what that is is to update the software, it's the whole circuit board and everything in there that tells the pumps when to turn on, tells them when to turn off and degrees, and and so that's a vital and part of us being able to run those pump stations and automatic during you know flood conditions. So uh, you know, it'll save us a lot of money in the long run by going ahead and updating them. Uh and then the other thing is uh 24,000 is for two new crew trucks, uh, and that'll be under the the lease agreement. Um a couple of our trucks of getting a lot of age on them. The repairs are starting to get more and more uh as they get the age on them. So we're uh we're wanting to kind of switch them out for two new trucks to go into this lease program to help with the cost of the maintenance and and just the the age of the equipment. So other than that, you know, like I said, everything is I mean, there's not a whole lot of uh adjustments in the budget, you know, as far as the day-to-day operation, everything pretty much stayed the same. It's just the the spots where you know the the electric bills and and the water and the gas, you know, those have fluctuated a little bit, so we've had to put a little buffer in there for that. Other than that, everything pretty much stay within budget of where it would be this year for next year. Any questions? Any questions from Mike? Uh yeah, Mike, on that uh station control panel, is is that just one control panel? No, no, I'm sorry. That is for so right this year, right now we've I put it and we're doing two of them this year. And then next next year I'm wanting to go ahead and do the rest of them. And so how many total do we have? We have a total of 19 pump stations. So we're doing two this year, and then that that will be the total for the rest of them for you know the rest of the stations next year. And then that way they're all updated, they're all you know, because you know, if I done it in little portions, by the time I finished with the other, you know, uh 16 stations, I'd be starting back over with the first two I did. So I'm just trying to, you know, get it to where they're all uh, you know, within the same time period of being done so that you know we're not just a continuous cycle. So yeah, that would be that would be all of the 19 pump stations total, you know, with but minus the two that we're doing this year. So Mike, um life insurance, you have a 444 percent increase. Is that correct? Uh not sure. I'm assuming just because uh that that's probably with the that would be with Robert would be able to verify. Yeah. So I you know, because that's part of I don't do the life insurance part. Okay.