Redmond Finance Committee of the Whole Meeting - March 10, 2026
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Redmond City Council Finance, Administration, and Communications Committee of the Whole Meeting - March 10, 2026
The Committee of the Whole met on March 10, 2026, at 4:30 PM at Redmond City Hall and remotely. All council members were present. The agenda included four action items recommended for approval on the March 17 consent agenda and four informational updates on budget preparation, equity programs, technology projects, and data governance.
Consent Calendar
- UKG Pro Extension – Additional Launch Support (CM 26-1401): Staff requested a contract extension of $150,000–$225,000 to support the UKG Pro implementation through October 2026. Placed on the March 17 consent agenda.
- 2025-2026 Budget Adjustment #5 (CM 26-1432): A clean-up ordinance recognizing grants, reimbursements, adding the old firehouse demolition to the CIP, and transferring funds for a previously approved BTIP project. Placed on the March 17 consent agenda.
- Capital Project Bond Reimbursement Resolution (CM 26-1253): A resolution to allow the city to reimburse itself from future bond proceeds for up to $60 million in eligible capital expenditures. The amount is not an obligation to borrow and may be updated later. Placed on the March 17 consent agenda.
- Capital Project Bond Debt Redemption Resolution (CM 26-1264): A resolution to redeem callable 2015 and 2016 bond series totaling $10.5 million, using business tax ($6.93M) and transportation impact fees ($3.6M), saving an estimated $1.4 million in interest. Placed on the March 17 consent agenda.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made.
Discussion Items
- 2027-2028 Budget Process Update: Finance Director Kelly Cochrane presented the budget preparation timeline, including department presentations starting in March, community engagement via a consultant-led focus group (not an open call), and long-range financial strategy review. Councilmembers discussed the need for inclusive community outreach, the prohibition on compensating volunteers, and plans to bring budgeting-for-equity and fiscal policy updates in April. A study session on financial policies and strategy may be scheduled.
- Respect, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Program Update: Assistant CEO Lisa Marr reported on the welcoming team’s work linking REDI Goal 3 to budgeting for equity, and the hiring process for a Deputy Equity and Strategic Services Director. Of 49 applicants, one finalist was selected and will be introduced at the April meeting. Councilmembers requested performance metrics and a post-hire plan, and emphasized setting the new hire up for success.
- 2025-2026 BTIP Project Update: TIS PMO Manager Carmen Hall summarized the Business Technology Investment Program portfolio: 13 projects in flight, 7 completed, 3 in planning, and 9 more expected to finish by year-end. Completed projects included Windows 11 migration, Thrive Dashboard launch, and CIP software phase one. The D365 phase two program is under budget but monitored due to vendor cost increases (~7%). Four projects are delayed due to resource constraints. Council questions focused on scope management and future prioritization.
- Data Governance Program Update: Enterprise Data and GIS Manager Melissa Brady presented results of a 2025 maturity assessment and outlined six focus areas: operating model, data sharing, classification, metadata catalog, training, and platform integration. A cross-departmental data governance council has drafted policies. Next steps include piloting data onboarding with selected datasets. Councilmembers requested written artifacts, benchmark comparisons with other cities, enforcement mechanisms, and faster progress, noting that data governance is a council priority. Staff committed to sharing additional materials and considering a study session.
Key Outcomes
- All four action items were approved for placement on the March 17 regular business meeting consent agenda without objection.
- Staff will provide additional details on the budget engagement process, REDI deputy performance plan, BTIP priority adjustments, and data governance documents to council in the coming weeks.
- The council will consider scheduling a study session to review the long-range financial strategy and fiscal policies before the biennial budget adoption.
Meeting Transcript
I'm calling this meeting to order. This is a meeting of the Finance Administration and Communications Committee of the Whole of the Redmond City Council. Is there is there an echo here? Maybe someone logged on here. Okay. We're all right. Good. All council members are in attendance. We have eight items on our agenda today. And I'll turn it over to our TIS director, Mike Marshan, to uh kick us off. Good afternoon, Council. I will hand this over to Courtney Miller, a project manager to introduce this item. Good afternoon, members of the city council. My name is Courtney Miller. I am a technology project manager, and I'm here today to provide background and seek approval at the March 17th regular business meeting of a project change order for workforce management phase two. For background, in 2023, the city started the BTIP project workforce management phase two, continuing the transition to UKG platforms already in use for timekeeping, which was implemented in May 2021. The original plan was to implement the UKG ready product. However, during implementation, the team identified significant concerns, including the products plan sunset and compatibility limitations with the existing timekeeping system due to UKG's redesigns. So during Q2, Q3 of 2024, the team evaluated the city's requirements and decided to shift the implementation from UKG ready to UKG PRO. UKG PRO implementation began in November 2024. It will bring a modern human resource information system to the city, strengthening operational efficiency, expanding employee self-service capabilities, and ensuring a secure, reliable platform. Excuse me. This contract extension will provide continued UKG support while we refine payroll processes, re-engage city project resources, and ensure system readiness for launch. The extension specifically provides the following. It extends our existing assigned UKG resources through April 2026 and allows for UKG resource support through launch by October 2026. The extension is a flat rate contract by period, October 2025 through April 2026, then month with monthly amounts billed as consumed beyond April 2026. These funds are included in the 25-26 BTIP budget. So we are seeking council approval at the March 17th regular business meeting, a minimum 150,000 with a maximum of 225,000 if implementation extends to October 2026. Thank you so much. So as noted, the proposal would be to put this on the March 17th consent agenda. Are there questions from the council? I'm not seeing any. Thank you for that very comprehensive review. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. And we have our finance director Kelly Cochrane here to introduce this item. Go ahead. Good afternoon, Council. This is the fifth budget adjustment that we are submitting for your consideration. And I'm going to hand it off to Haley Zurcher, who is our financial planning manager responsible for the development, monitoring, and adjusting of the city's budget. All right, good afternoon, council. Since this is our first budget adjustment with some new faces at the table, I just wanted to take take a quick second and give you a brief overview of why we would and when we bring budget adjustments forward. So whenever the city's total budget changes, um, we seek council approval and an ordinance is required. So in instances where that happens is when we are transferring funds from one fund to another, um, when we're recognizing new revenue, whether that be through grants or reimbursements, um, and then the addition of a CIP project into the CIP. So even if we've already explained to you all the CIP project that's getting added. If it hasn't been brought forward as a budget adjustment in another touch point, then we'll bring it forward this way. So today we just have a very brief budget adjustment. Um it's really just cleanup items. Um we are recognizing revenues and reimbursement or recognizing some revenues mostly through grants and through reimbursements, um, and then adding the old firehouse building demo to the CIP.
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