This year that's gonna be here as far as council goes.

So we'll go ahead and get started since it's five o'clock.

Welcome to the city council conference for Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.

We have one item on the agenda, which is a discussion regarding the proposed uh FYE 2027 City of Norman budget, general fund and special revenue funds.

So we have staff here to lead us in the discussion.

Mayor uh Ice Clint Mercer, sir.

I'm the finance director here.

So I have with me Kim Kaufman, who's the assistant finance director, chief accountant.

So it's our pleasure tonight to bring you the uh city manager's proposed budget uh for 2027, fiscal year 2027 that with the general fund and special revenue funds focused on tonight.

So kind of to get us started, I kind of want to cover what is a budget.

Um budget's a comprehensive policy document.

Uh it's a financial plan to carry out policy decisions, it reflects the values for priority that propriety priority, a strategic vision of the city.

Uh, it's an operational guide that holds departments accountable, and it's a viable communications tool that transparently illustrates how evaluable resources are allocated in support of council's goals.

So, with that, the concept of that public communication, the legal requirement for a budget, it could honestly be done in a one-page resolution, which would be uh council's authorization to spend.

And um the budget in total, we're talking about 302 million dollars, and we recognize it would be very difficult to convince anybody to just go ahead and sign a one-pager that says go ahead and spend 302 million without the ability to demonstrate where that 302 million goes.

So the format we follow has been recognized by the government finance officers association.

We have received dozens upon dozens of awards for excellence in budgetary presentation.

So we do go above and beyond in terms of what we present to you and the public in terms of detail, and of course, we work mightily to be as transparent as any governmental entity in the state of Oklahoma, but that's what this reflects.

It's gonna feel like a good good document.

Yeah, exactly.

That's about 302 million feels like we'll do that.

Okay, this is kind of a uh slide that uh I liken it to uh if you go to the mall, and there's the little kiosk.

I tell you you are here, but this is the uh the budget calendar, and we are at uh the item in red, uh, which is the general and special revenue funds.

We've got upcoming uh next week.

We'll have a uh well, tonight we'll have a public budget hearing, and then next week we'll cover the capital funds, and then uh and then two weeks after that we'll cover the enterprise funds.

We'll have another uh budget hearing May 26th, and then uh there's an option to have another council session uh study session June 2nd, and then uh the final adoption will come June 9th.

So, and then we'll start the fiscal year July 1.

The budget document documents that you have, the way they're prepared, uh it's kind of the summary to detail format.

So you guys uh I'm sure you've had time maybe maybe not to prove through, but uh the uh there's some so some good good sections in here.

Uh I particularly like the uh community profile section.

You can go through and kind of compare to some of our peers, um, see where we stand on different categories.

Uh there's some statistical parts as well.

Um that's that's the document itself.

Um this next slide shows kind of the functions.

Uh the city and where they live.

Like, for example, you know, legals on the general fund, police is in the general fund, um, room tax as its own special revenue fund, um, enterprise funds, water, sewer, um, sanitation.

We have capital project funds for different purposes, Norman Forward Fund, um, debt service fund.

So that's kind of a pictorial of where they live, and this is also in your budget book.

So financial policies.

Uh, this the city is required to adopt a budget by city charter.

Uh, we also follow the municipal budget act, and um we have to uh the requirements are listed out here, but uh um has to be uh uh 30 days prior to the beginning of each fiscal year.

The chief executive officer shall present a proposed budget to the governing body for consideration.

And then we have to have a balanced budget, which we'll go into more detail as to what that actually means a little bit later.

The adopted budget must be transmitted to state auditor and inspector within 30 days after the beginning of the fiscal year, and then the adopted budget must be available to the public in print or electronically, which ours is on our website.

So just some other factors here.

So each time each year when you adopt the budget, you're readopting these financial policies.

Council approves projected revenues and allocated expenditures within the adopted budget.

So that's a little bit different than when items come to you through the year.

When you adopt this budget, you're adopting those funds up front.

And then you make adjustments as you go along through the year.

Back to the balance budget requirement.

The uh the balancing part of it is we must have a positive fund balance at the end of the year.

So it's okay to spend more in expenses than revenues as long as you have a fund balance.

And you'll see tonight that we're actually the other direction.

In years past few years, we've actually spent down into fund balance, but tonight's budget will be a positive figure.

So for the general fund.

Um we uh uh we have a we have what we call our fund summaries in here, which are our uh pro forma looking statements.

So we're looking out projecting five years to kind of see if things hold, this is where we'll let it up.

So uh important part of it.

The uh we also have operating capital and debt reserve policies, uh levelized utility rate five years, uh utility room tax transfers to the general fund and compliance with the municipal budget act.