Surprise City Council Work Session - October 21, 2025
Surprise City Council Work Session - October 21, 2025
This work session featured two major presentations: the FY2025 financial status report through June 2025, and strategic plans from the Transportation and Fire Medical departments. The council discussed revenue variances, ambulance write-offs, transportation infrastructure goals, and firefighter wellness initiatives. No formal votes were taken.
Discussion Items
-
FY2025 Financial Status Report (through June 2025) – Finance staff reported that local sales tax came in 8.7% over budget, state-shared income tax 2% over, and shared sales tax 4% over. However, charges for services had a $4 million shortfall due to ambulance write-offs ($3.7 million from unpaid ambulance bills and insurance discounts) from prior years, partly attributed to a change in billing companies. Personnel services ended with 3.7% savings due to delayed hiring, and services were 17.2% under budget due to lower-than-anticipated developer reimbursements. Capital savings of $200,000 resulted from vehicle purchase timing. An additional $15 million was transferred to the general capital fund. Councilmember Judd requested more detailed information on ambulance revenue and write-offs. Councilmember Greenberg asked about franchise fees (mostly APS) and the number of years covered by the write-offs.
-
Transportation Department Strategic Plan – Director Eric Boyles presented the plan, aligning with council priorities. Goals include: establishing a full-time incident response team, developing a training program for incident response, and maintaining an emergency equipment staging plan. For funding, the department will explore a transportation impact fee and a citywide traffic signal fee, and develop a grant evaluation tool. The department aims to add 30 lane miles per year (at an estimated $8–12 million per lane mile), complete the Joe Max Road extension design in FY26 with construction in FY27, and work with ADOT on the SR 303/155th Avenue interchange. Pedestrian safety programs for high schools and ADA upgrades are also planned. Councilmembers praised the department's work, with Councilmember Haney noting debris clearing of 57–65 trees after the first storm. Councilmember Duffy acknowledged the constant requests from council.
-
Surprise Fire Medical Department Strategic Plan – Interim Chief (name not provided) presented the department's mission and alignment with council priorities. Key points: Fire Station 310 at Deer Valley Road and 185th Avenue is in design, opening in about two years; apparatus is on order. The department earned international accreditation in March 2025. A new safety and member services division focuses on wellness, cancer prevention, and exposure tracking per the Craig Tiger Act. A public safety master plan is due March 2026. The department is expanding paramedic training (14 current students) and plans its own paramedic program. Collaboration with the police department on a drone-as-first-responder program is in development. Councilmembers discussed firefighter cancer risks, retirement tiers (42% of personnel have less than five years, 50% are tier three requiring age 54/55 and 25 years of service), and post-retirement health coverage. Vice Mayor Hastings raised the idea of post-employment healthcare to bridge the gap to Medicare.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or resolutions were adopted. Council directed staff to provide additional details on ambulance write-offs and revenue. The strategic plans were received as informational, with general support expressed by council members. Next steps include continued work on transportation funding mechanisms, the public safety master plan, and the fire department's paramedic program.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good evening, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the city council work session on Tuesday, October 21st. Madam Clerk, please call the role. Uh-oh. Mayor Sarter. Present. I'm very hasting late. He will be late today. Uh Councilmember Haney. I am here. Councilmember Greenberg. Here. Councilmember Duffy? Here. Councilmember Melton. Here. Council Member Chuck. Here. Thank you, Mayor. We have quorum. All right. Thank you. Can you please read item one? Item number one presentation and discussion pertaining to the FY twenty twenty-five. Uh, Madam Kirk, one second. Yes. We have to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Oh, thank you. Would you all please join me in the pledge? And to the Republican for which it stands for one nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, please read item one. Item number one presentation and discussion pertaining to the FY twenty twenty-five financial status report through June 2025. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Okay. So I'm here this afternoon to discuss our financial status. Whoa, that's loud. Our financial status uh through June. So that is why we're here in October. We finished them up at the end of September, and now we're just kind of flushing them through. So that's why we're here so late. Um, after June 30th. So we're gonna start with our sources. As always, we always give this um slide to give you guys an idea of what we're discussing. Our sources are our general fund revenue, local sales tax, intergovernmental, which is state shared sales tax, income tax, and vehicle license fees, charges for services are fees for our programs, um, and our services like permits and inspections. Primary property tax. Um any franchise utility companies working within the city. And then our transfers in are our indirect cost assessments, um, enterprise payments for HR, finance, IT, etc. And then there is one other category that's not on here that you will see, and that's our other category, which is our interest, our in loo write-offs, um, just miscellaneous. That is not easy easily tracked, um, or budgeted because it will come in um in fluctuation. So for our uh to end FY25.
openpublica.com