The City Council of Lewiston conducted its regular meeting on January 5, 2026, marking the installation of new council members and the kickoff of the FY27 budget process. The evening included a workshop on the Local Capital Improvement Plan (LCIP), the swearing-in of new officials, election of council leadership, and extensive public testimony regarding the residency of Councilor Iman Osman, leading to a vote authorizing an independent investigation into his qualifications.
As a city councilor. For the city of Lewiston. According to the laws of this state. According to the laws of the state. And the charter of the city of Lewiston. And charter of the city of OSCE. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations to our new council. Director Roy. And Administrator Kenrath. Okay. I'll let you two introduce yourselves and uh take it away. Do you just move the mics uh very close to you? That'd be great. And if you can uh if we can uh please refrain from speaking in the uh council chambers if you need to talk, just head out to the hall and then silence your cell phones. We we have enough stuff going on without having to hear those. So yeah, thank you. Please proceed you two. All right, uh good evening, uh mayor and council. Uh Brian Camrouth, city administrator. Tracy Roy Finance Director. And we are here this evening to kick off the FY27 budget process. Uh, I think officially with the presentation of the uh LCIP. The LCIP is a five-year capital planner for the city of Lewiston for fiscal years 27 uh to 31, and we're going to be focusing in a little bit more on fiscal 27 or upcoming budget year in this presentation. Um this is um the initial piece of this. Obviously, we'll have more discussions later, um conversation, uh time for more questions. Uh and I'll also note there's uh one particular item in this presentation for FY27 uh commitments that uh from the police department we will be having uh a presentation on that proposal probably at our next meeting uh in January. This is on um take home vehicles for officers, and we're gonna have a more in-depth presentation uh on that at our next meeting, probably our next meeting, maybe the first of February, but likely the next meeting, um, to talk more in detail about that and why it may make sense for for Lewiston. So to kick us off, um we have uh for uh the five-year capital plan about 239 million dollars uh in projects, overall projects, and 224 million of that is from city resources um or taxation. So uh our proposed use uh of local sources uh for fiscal 27 uh totals about 42 and a half million. So just really quickly, city bond issue um is a little over 24 million of that, city operating budget is only 168,000, school bond issue, 9.5 million, uh water bond issue 2.9 million, water operating budget, a little under 600,000, sewer bond issue, 2.3 million, sewer operating budget 542,000, sewer impact fees 100,000, stormwater bond issue about 1.6 million and stormware operating budget 125,000. So proposed uh bond issues uh for 27 uh totals about 41.1 million uh on the city side uh 24.7 on the school side nine and a half million, water two point nine, sewer two point three, stormwater uh one point six. And the other years you see obviously in the on the slide. So we're outstanding uh debt issued and authorized um as of December twenty thirty-first of twenty-five uh on the city side we have about fifty uh and a half million, uh school side about sixty um point five million, water twenty-two million, sewer nineteen million six and ninety-five thousand, uh stormwater uh about thirteen and a half million, and authorized but unissued debt uh about fifty million, so a total of two hundred and seventeen million four hundred and forty thousand. So debt service as a percent of the FY26 operating budget on the city side, it was just over uh 14% at 14.3 percent on the school side, uh 7.8 percent, and a total there of 10 percent uh overall. So you see our outstanding uh general fund debt. Um you see the interest in red, uh the principal in blue for 26. Uh it's been up slightly from past previous years, but certainly down substantially from you see 2005 on there when we were up towards 100 million uh in total, we're just under 16 million now. And I think during our audit presentation, Tracy, our auditor will also give us some comparisons to other communities where they are with uh total outstanding debt. And I think my guess is we'll be uh in pretty good shape uh comparatively to other communities of just under 60 million. Uh so debt management. Um we lowered our debt authorization limit to uh 80 percent. We do refinance debt when possible. Uh we move recurring expenditures into the operating budget when possible, as you know, and of course, using unallocated fund balance uh after requirements are met. Uh is another option. Uh this will not be available this year unless the council wants to go to 10% limit. So that is one limiting factor for this year. So future year uh debt service requirement, uh city general fund, uh FY26, uh about six and a half million, and you see trending uh down uh over the next five years to fiscal year 31, about 4.3.