The city council held a budget workshop on April 9, 2026, to review the proposed 2026-27 budgets for Public Services, Planning and Development, Building Inspections, IT, and Resilience and Sustainability. Directors presented their budgets, achievements, and capital projects. Council members asked questions about staffing, revenue, and organizational structure. No formal votes were taken; the workshop was informational.
Resiliency and sustainability, public services, planning and development, building inspections, and the IT department for the 2026-27 proposed budget. And it looks like we'll start off with uh Mr. Riccio. Ray. Ray. Can you put public services slides up? That's my working on getting. I'll just ask Bill to speak loudly. No. Get you going. All right. So I'm gonna um lead off tonight with the Prime of Public Services. Um first slide is just the general breakdown that finance provided. It's it's sort of like I call it the bucket slide. Um, you know, in in past years I've um modeled it a little differently, but you know, essentially um personnel salary and benefits is roughly 50% of my budget contract services is another uh roughly 35. Um that would be made up of our road work contract, our solid waste, as you know, we outsource that in addition to fleet uh fleet management, uh decorative street lighting, um, and all uh you know extra electric contractors and HVAC contractors, and then um equipment and fleet, gas, vehicle maintenance. That's usually around five to seven percent. And you know, when we get down to it, and then when you add utilities and insurances, et cetera, those are all the uncontrollables. It usually comes out to be ninety-four, ninety-five percent of our budget. So we're looking at five or six percent, which is you know, operating supplies, which includes no materials, road and sidewalk like concrete and asphalt and things for the all of the um in-house operations, you know, right down to mutt mitts and pens and paper. Um so that's um pretty much yeah, in the nutshell, you know, in a um on the high level. Um what's changed in our budget this year is we made this proposal last year as well. Um, and we're bringing it forward and including it in this budget is for two new labor positions. Um basically throughout the organization. Um pretty much they'll be centered on last year. If you remember, the conversation was to have essentially a full-timer seasonally that would take care of the cliffwalk and be able to help with some of the ancillary grounds and forestry items, and then one on the public works side. Uh as you know, we started taking four or five years ago. We started to take it taking a really aggressive approach on litter collection on the streets and the rights of way. Last year we actually collected a staggering 19 tons of litter. Um, you know, it's really important because as we developed and rolled out that program, you know, obviously when you move your resources around, some things aren't being tendered to as strongly. So, you know, it's become a commitment of uh of ours, and it's you know, it's just time to staff up a little more. So and it helps throughout all other parts of the the year as well. Um so that's pretty much the you know the the big modification. I did make a couple of adjustments throughout my budget um to take care of some needs, not that that have developed, but I mean obviously we know we had a pretty brutal winter. Um and costs have gone up. We really haven't asked for an increase in um snow materials, predominantly salts in a number of years, so we increase that. Um nothing over the top crazy. Um and um yeah, that's pretty much it. Everything else, you know, we go into these budgets with you know, keep it keep it as controlled and tight as possible. So um we do, I think you all know we do an excellent job in providing what we need to provide um and going above and beyond in my opinion. So with the um the two labor positions um because of the level, what is like the cap that they're allowed to do as far as work goes? Like, for instance, if we had them during the snowstorm, would are they able to jump on a plow? Oh, yeah, things like that, like exactly it's it's all in the you know, unfortunately the not unfortunately, but the labor level is the intro level. Yeah, um it's the lowest level within the it's like the entry point. Um, and then we have like maintenance persons, labor equipment operators, um, and and you know, it's the boots on the ground, it's the um but everyone ships in where it's needed, you know, and it gets into emergency situations, which essentially it's no response is everybody is everybody's in a plow of some of some sort. Obviously, the CDL drivers are in the bigger rigs, yeah. And uh the ones that might not have those um would be in the you know the plow trucks and stuff like that, but it's you know it's all hands on deck, and you know, that's pretty much throughout the year too where you need it, you go. Um and you know, labor is just not the one with the shovel all the time. So um Bill, the capital projects you have listed, uh vehicle Bay Wall, uh Wash Bay, Rogers tennis court improvements, et cetera. Are those um general fund expenditures or are some of those um grants as well?