Norman City Council Special Meeting – March 3, 2026: FY 2027 CIP Budget and Bond Program Updates
Norman City Council Special Meeting – March 3, 2026
The Norman City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, to discuss the Fiscal Year Ending (FYE) 2027 Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Budget and the FYE 2027–2031 CIP Plan, along with a separate item to consider adjourning into executive session for pending litigation. City staff presented revenue projections, recurring project allocations, and status updates on voter-approved bond programs. No formal votes were taken; the discussion served to guide the development of the preliminary budget, which will be presented to council on May 5, 2026, for adoption in June.
Discussion Items
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Budget Process Timeline: Budget analyst Jake Huckabee outlined the CIP schedule: March 3 (midpoint review), May 5 (review of the city manager’s preliminary budget), and June (adoption). The preliminary budget will be delivered to council before the April 17 meeting.
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Capital Sales Tax Revenue: The city’s capital sales tax (0.7%) generates approximately $17 million annually. Staff proposed allocating $16,358,536 to recurring projects, leaving minimal funds for new projects. The pie chart breakdown: 20% street maintenance ($3.45M), 27% capital outlay ($4.78M), 7% maintenance of existing facilities, and 36% for other projects and debt service (including ~$10M annual debt service). Council member requested future charts to show debt service as a separate slice.
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Recurring Project Requests: Key recurring allocations include:
- Street maintenance ($3.45M): alley repair, asphalt/concrete maintenance, crack seal.
- Stormwater ($2.4M): Finley Avenue pipe replacement ($1.5M), Forest drainage ($100K), drainage rehab ($400K), Lake Thunderbird TMDL project ($400K).
- Sidewalk projects ($500K total): school/arterial sidewalks on Alameda Street, ADA ramps on Brookhollow Road, 50-50 cost-share program ($125K), downtown sidewalk on Garver Street, trails along 12th Avenue NE, and horizontal saw-cut on Northbury Street.
- Park amenities ($60K), tree program ($45K), IT hardware/software (major Microsoft upgrade), capital outlay ($4.78M for fleet and computer replacements), personnel costs ($1.39M for capital-funded staff), ADA compliance ($300K + $105K for plan update), ODOT audit adjustment ($100K), bridge maintenance ($1M pay-go), traffic calming ($50K), RTA contribution ($129,848), and GIS mapping update ($225K).
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Fleet and IT Replacement Discussion: City staff noted that fleet vehicle costs have nearly doubled over six years (police vehicles from $50K to $80K; fire trucks from $500K to $1M; ladder trucks from $1M to $2M). Staff assured council that Norman’s fleet age and condition are competitive with peer cities (Broken Arrow, Edmond). A council member requested comparison metrics (e.g., average mileage); staff committed to providing data from Fleet Superintendent Mike White.
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Street Maintenance Bond Program (2021–26): The $27M, five-year program is nearly complete, with all projects finished on schedule. The final item (urban concrete pavement) is under construction and will be completed before year-end. Voters will consider a renewal on April 7, 2026: a no-new-tax, $35M, five-year bond program covering 180 lane miles (up from 150 in the previous program).
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Transportation Bond Programs:
- The 2012 transportation bond project (Porter Avenue) received a $25M Safe Streets for All grant; total construction estimate is $32.06M. Phase 2 discussions with OTA continue.
- The 2019 transportation bond ($177.2M authorized, $46M issued) has two completed projects (Porter Avenue streetscape and intersection), three underway (Grey Street two-way conversion, traffic management center, Jenkins Avenue – $15.5M with $10.2M in federal funds). Staff is pursuing grants for remaining projects.
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Bridge Maintenance Bond Program (2023, $50M over 10 years): $16M issued. Completed four projects, three in design. The Absentee Shawnee Tribe contributed $13.8M for Porter Avenue rehabilitation. FY 2027 requests include design for 72nd Avenue NE bridge replacement and 48th Avenue/Franklin Road bridge rehab ($500K total).
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Permanent Homeless Shelter Proposition: Voters will decide on April 7, 2026, an $8M general obligation bond (20-year term) to construct a shelter on Reed Avenue (capacity: 120 people). Operations would be contracted and funded from the general fund, not capital funds.
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Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST) Fund: The final critical capital need is the reconstruction and relocation of Fire Station Five (estimated $6.5M). Staff will bring a funding request for design on the next council agenda (March 10). Once the existing PSST bonds are paid off in 2027, the fund will fold into the general fund; council discussed continuing to track it separately for transparency. Also noted: the PSST fund currently overspends its revenue, with the general fund backfilling police and fire personnel costs.
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Norman Forward Sales Tax Fund: Major projects (Saxon Park, Canadian River Park) are complete; remaining funds (~$11M projected surplus by FY 2031) will be allocated to neighborhood park renovations, trails, and traffic improvements. FY 2027 requests include $650K for neighborhood park improvements, $21K for public art (likely tied to Saxon Park), and a grant match for a Kids Base playground replacement (potential $600K Tset grant). Council is not required to finalize these allocations until future budget amendments.
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Midpoint Projections: Staff presented a negative $8,065,697 available for new projects in FY 2027, assuming full spending of previously appropriated funds (which typically does not occur). Staff emphasized the art and science of revenue forecasting, noting past successes and the unpredictable nature of events like COVID.
Executive Session
- Council voted to adjourn into executive session (per Oklahoma statutes) to discuss pending litigation in Bad Day Towing and Recovery Company, Inc. v. City of Norman, Oklahoma Supreme Court Case No. SD 12329.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken on budget allocations. Council provided general direction and requested additional data (e.g., fleet age comparisons, debt service breakdown).
- The preliminary budget will be distributed before the April 17 council meeting and formally reviewed on May 5, 2026, with adoption expected in June.
- Voters will decide on two ballot propositions on April 7, 2026: the street maintenance bond renewal (no new tax, $35M over five years) and the homeless shelter bond ($8M).
- Staff will return on March 10, 2026, with a funding request for design of the new Fire Station Five and implementation of the fire department matrix assessment.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Good afternoon and welcome to the city council special meeting for Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. We have a couple items on the agenda today, two items. The first one is a discussion regarding the FYE 2027 Capital Improvements Program Budget and the FYE 2027 through 2030 capital improvements plan. And we have city staff here to discuss that with us. So thank you for having me. Good evening, Mary and Council. My name is Jake Huckabee. I'm a budget analyst in the finance department. And as he said, we're going to be going over the fiscal year ending 2025-26 midpoint midpoint evaluations, as well as the fiscal year ending 2027 to 2031 capital improvements plan. I think there was a little bit of a typo on the agenda item online, but it is going to be the 27 to 2031 CIP plan. We're at a point in the process where we have the midpoint projections now. So we're able to tie those into uh the requests that were just turned in for the FIE27 budget to get a better idea of where we're at and what we're looking at heading to the last half of this budget cycle before adoption. Um so first, just kind of an overview of where we're at in the process. Um we have today March 3rd. Um the only other meeting that we have related to the CIP in this budget cycle is gonna be on May 5th. It's where we're gonna review the final proposed uh city manager's preliminary budget for FYE 2027. Um we'll have the preliminary books to you before the end to review, and we'll go over everything that's in those as well as any uh possible amendments or changes that you all uh would like to discuss before that goes up for adoption in June. Um so first just wanted to throw this in uh to kind of give an idea. We're gonna talk about some of these projects and this is where some of the numbers come for from these projects. Um we talked about our capital sales tax is seven tenths of one percent. This is just our starting point for uh how much do we want to put in each of these categories uh each year? Doesn't always line up perfectly. Um sometimes we go more or less in these categories, but overall this is kind of our starting point for where we start to look at uh how much we want to spend on each of these. And on this chart, how much would you say of the other projects in debt service? How much of that piece is the debt service? I mean, not much. I don't think it would be much on the no, I I think a big portion of that is debt service, actually, because most of the projects fall into the other categories. So I I would I would so other projects and debt services 36%. So that's and how much of that 36 is debt service is the question. And then yeah, what is the other my other question too? Is what are the ones other projects made? Projects that don't fit into that category, so that would be um buildings and grounds, is our probably the biggest category within other projects. Um but debt service looks like it accounts for um and that's on all the bonds, obviously, but it's four, five, six, seven, eight, so about ten million in debt service each year in that uh 36% category, and then it's the building and grounds category as well. Okay. Would it be possible uh future graph to show debt service as its own slice? Absolutely. Okay. So look at these preparing project requests. Um the projects that um we call them recurring, they're just kind of the the bread and butter of what we put into capital fund. Um so starting off with street maintenance, that's gonna be that 20% of that uh pie chart. That's gonna be at 3,450,000. Um within that little category, we're gonna have alley repair, asphalt maintenance, concrete maintenance, and crack seal. Those are the four project categories within that street maintenance line item. We're gonna have a hundred thousand for street striping, um, 2.4 million for stormwater, which is gonna include uh three different drainage projects. That's 1.5 million uh for a project that's gonna target the Finley Avenue uh pipe replacement there. We have the forest account drainage project, it's a hundred thousand dollars, um, as well as a drainage rehabilitation project for 400,000, and then the uh Lake Thunderbird TMDL total maximum daily load project for 400,000. And the that's not including street maintenance bond program. Yes, this is the sales tax portion that is separate from the street maintenance bond. Is this what our street maintenance program would look like if we didn't have the street maintenance bond yet program?
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