All right.

I would like to go ahead and uh call to order our finance committee.

Um thank you for everybody uh for being here.

We're uh it's unprecedented that uh we're uh starting on a Thursday at four o'clock, but I think the um the attitude and we want to try something new with our budget season.

Uh so tonight um or this afternoon rather, uh the agenda is going to be over the all fund summary um and capital uh projects for 2026.

Any questions for my colleagues or any comments?

Okay.

Administration, Miranda.

Oh, Mayor, please.

Thank you, appreciate that.

Uh just to make a few introductory comments.

Uh thank you very much, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Uh as you do acknowledge today's budget workshop is a bit of a departure from what we've done in previous years.

And uh my team and I very much appreciate the collaboration of council.

I think it was early in the uh this year that seems like eons ago, uh, but early in 2025 when we talked about how can we work together to help make this process go more efficiently, not only for ease of understanding for our residents to follow along, uh, but in terms of the time demands that that really having thorough discussions of the budget take.

Uh so trying trying this work workshop approach in uh in an effort to streamline our conversations, take it by take a bite of the elephant, maybe uh bit by bit, uh, instead of trying to swallow the elephant hole through finance committee meetings, uh, but addressing these in sections so that we can again make sure that we are addressing them in detail, that we're being transparent, uh, but also trying to make it a little bit easier for understand, not just for all of us sitting in this room, uh, but also for those at home.

Uh tonight is a presentation of my administration's 2026 budget request.

Uh and as you'll hear, the budget reflects the strong economic growth that the city continues to see.

Uh, and it requests funding or indicates funding requests that will enable us to continue to grow in smart and sustainable manner.

Uh the budget process for the administration began back in June.

Uh, and I I know for for those of you uh and maybe even for those at home that really don't have an understanding of just how much time it takes to put this together.

So uh it really over the last June, July, August, September, five months, uh half the year, really has consumed the focus of uh Director Burry and her finance team, our department heads, many of whom are here this evening, uh, as well as our executive leadership team.

Uh what has happened over the course of the last five months has been countless meetings, I would say dozens of meetings, ranging from one-on-one meetings with department heads to full-on group meetings with Director Burry and her team, uh, as well as the executive team members and management team members of each individual department, where we reviewed uh the requests for budgeting, everything from staffing to programming requests, uh discussed it, evaluated it, questioned it, re-evaluated again, and adjusted accordingly uh as those discussions continue to happen.

During those meetings, we look not only for what are the impacts and requests going to be for 2026, but also a five-year lookout.

What are the longer term impacts that we're having on operations and how do we see programming playing out over the next over the next five years as well?

So it's not just an isolated look that we take as we uh go through this budget process.

Uh as Director Burry will discuss shortly, the economic success of the city is anticipated to continue into 2026 with economic growth projected to continue to increase our income tax base through 2030.

In the coming year, you can expect to see continued investments in our aging infrastructure, making necessary upgrades, uh, expansion of services, uh, especially as we move into the new Gehana Civic Center, and the implementation of our Gehana, uh, which will complement existing plans that we have, our capital improvement plan, for example, uh, to ensure that we are fulfilling the community's vision for what they want Gehanna to be, uh, and that we're doing so in a manner where we are investing those dollars wisely, strategically, uh, and in a sustainable manner for the long-term success of this city.

And before I officially turn it over to the team who's biting at the bit, waiting to talk about budget numbers.

Uh, you could tell their excitement.

Uh, I do want to take a moment to commend Director Burry and her team.

I know we have Senior Deputy Director Corey Wybensinger, Senior Director Schultz, Senior Director Vollmer, uh, and our department heads uh who are all here as well.

Uh it is really a yeoman's job uh to put this budget together uh to have those conversations and have those difficult conversations.

Uh and they the level of care commitment and work that they have devoted to this uh I think is reflective in the quality of the work that they do each and every day, but especially in the budget that you're about to hear.

So with that, I want to turn this over to Director Burry and uh the two senior directors before you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

So first we just wanted to talk briefly about the schedule, the agenda.

Sorry, that's okay.

I didn't put this on.

Um, so we'll cover the budget calendar, then Director Burry will cover uh the overall budget assumptions, impact on the fund balances, revenue expenditures.

I will cover staffing requests and senior director Schultz will discuss the 2026 capital budget request.

So uh this is a schedule that I sent out earlier today with a couple corrections.

Um after consulting with Chair Renner, uh we divided up the operations department so you can see those are there on November 17th and November 21st.

Um the directors on each of those days will provide a very brief one slide uh of their 2026 priorities and how that factored into their budget requests, um, and then we'll answer any questions that we receive from council and any other ones that come up during the evening.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Director Burry to begin.

Good evening.

Uh so the first thing that we're gonna talk about is what are the overall budget assumptions or the main drivers behind the 2026 budget request.

Uh so as was previously mentioned, uh, even though there are slowdowns with the Intel Mega Project, the uh central Ohio area and Gehana continue to experience economic growth, and that's expected to continue during the five-year period.

Uh, we don't have any changes planned for service levels going into 2026.

Uh and it also includes a budget request to begin implementing our Gehana.

Uh, as a reminder, this is a 10-year plan.

So the first step will be determining a starting point and then a path forward to meet the goals identified throughout the various public engagements and the hard work and dedication of the steering committee.

Uh looking at health and prescription insurance coverage.

Uh, over the years, we've implemented various programs to try to contain health care cost.

In 2024, uh, we began a complete overhaul of insurance benefits to maintain cost while creating a better experience for employees and those that are responsible for the administration of the plans.

Uh, we engaged NFP as the city's insurance broker after an extensive RFE process.

Uh, and we engaged them to analyze our current plans and then give recommendations.

And they basically looked at four different paths that we could have taken.