Call to order the government operations committee for April third, two thousand twenty-five.

I'm going to stand for the Punch of Alleges.

Liberty.

Welcome everyone.

We have the approval of minutes for our March 20th, 2025 committee meeting.

Second.

There's been motion by Councilmember Russell, second by Council Member Stock for all those in favor.

Motion carries two.

Today on our workshop on our committee.

Government operations committee hearing today is our fiscal year 2025 budget overview.

This item represented by good to see you, Mayor.

Michael O'Connor and Katie Bargaw, Director of Budget Administration.

Mayor, it's all yours.

Thank you very much.

It's uh pleasure to be here today to kick off the public portion of the city's budgeting process.

This is uh an effort that at the staff and director level has been going on since the fiscal year began almost back in July with uh our departments pulling together their budget requests and submitting them to the budget office.

And I just want to start by saying thank you to the attention that uh staff gives to this process every year, and to the attention that I know the council will give as we move forward with this in over the next roughly six weeks to get us started.

I'm gonna turn it over to our director of budget administration, Katie Barkdahl.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Um to start off, we're just gonna quickly go over the um budget process where we are and what um we can expect.

Um this is more for um the public than it is for the council, as you're very experienced in in the next few weeks, but here we go.

Um so the general budget process um reminder that the the council will approve the budget, the tax rate, the position schedule, and the fee schedule, all by a simple majority.

These are all four separate um actions by the council.

Um the tax rate must be approved by the council by the end of May to be submitted to Frederick County in time for them to prepare our tax bills.

Um they do prepare those on our behalf.

Um, however, the budget um does not need to be approved, although we we do are scheduled for both votes on May 15th.

Um the budget does not have to be adopted on May 15th.

Um that actually by charter does not have to be approved until um June 20th.

If the budget is not approved by June 20th, then the mayor's proposed budget becomes the adopted budget.

As we move through, the mayor is um it's provided for in the charter that the mayor can revise his proposed budget through May 14th.

Um his original proposed budget and any of those revisions become the mayor's proposed budget.

After May 14th, the city uh council has the authority and the sole power to revise the budget.

Um and this is traditionally done as part of the motion to pass the budget on the night of adoption.

And just a reminder, of course, that any revisions to the budget must keep the budget in balance.

After the budget is adopted, there are a few ways that the budget can be changed.

Um directors and managers with approval from the mayor can transfer budget dollars within a department in between line items, so you can transfer money from supplies into professional services as an example, um, so long as it stays in the same department.

Transfers between departments can only be done in the last quarter of the year with council approval.

Um, those two things are outlined in the charter as well.

Um a budget amendment um is something we're very familiar with.

Um that is a special ordinance that increases the total budget and requires a supermajority of the city council to approve.

That's typically done um when grants are received throughout the year that we didn't anticipate during the budget process.

I've included um the budget schedule, so here we are today.

This is the general budget overview next week in the land use public safety and community development committee, the FPD economic development and the parking fund, Weinberg and Airport Fund will all be presenting at one o'clock.

Um, and then the CIP will be presented to the full council at 3:30.

Um after that on the 17th, um, we have I it says health and human services, but we know that there's housing and human services.

Um we'll present their budget at 10 um to the um housing, health and education committee, um, followed by government operations, um, which will have which will hear sustainability DPW operations and engineering and the mayor's office.

Then on April 24th, um at land use there will be the planning department and permits and code enforcement, um, followed by a general discussion um with the full council.

The general discussion um hearings or meetings are time that we set aside to talk to the full council about more general um budget issues and questions.

Um, unless a director or manager is requested to be at that meeting.

I wouldn't ex the council shouldn't expect that they would be there, but we will certainly provide um any resources that you request.

On May 1st and May 1st, um general government operations um we'll hear parks and rec budget administration and the legal department.

Um again on May 8th, there is another um opportunity for full council discussion, and then on May 15th is the public hearing to adopt the budget.

Turn it over to Windows.

I can take care of it.

Thank you.

So I hope that you have all had an opportunity to review both the budget memo included with the budget book that has been provided to all of you, as well as the introductory video which we released on April 1st.

Obviously, I don't expect that you've read every line of that rather voluminous uh budget book, but those are the numbers that really undergird uh all of this process.

They're the backup for lack of a better word on the process that we will embark upon over the next month and a half.

The City of Frederick is fortunate relative to our peers, generally speaking, when it comes to the stability of our tax base and the strength of our local economy.