Surprise City Council Work Session: Police, Public Works, and Financial Update – February 17, 2026
Surprise City Council Work Session: Police, Public Works, and Financial Update – February 17, 2026
The Surprise City Council held a regular work session on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, receiving presentations from the Police Department, Public Works, and a financial status report for the first half of FY2026. Council members expressed appreciation for department efforts and discussed future staffing and infrastructure needs.
Police Department Programs
Police Chief and Sergeant Hernandez presented an overview of the department's divisions and programs. The FY26 general fund operating budget is $56 million, with patrol accounting for 35%. In 2024, the department responded to approximately 45,000 calls for service. Successes included a targeted traffic enforcement operation at 163rd Avenue and Grand Avenue, resulting in 330 traffic stops and about 300 citations over two days. The annual toy drive served 165 families (548 children) in partnership with HSVC. Council members praised the department's professionalism and community engagement. Sergeant Hernandez noted that staffing remains a key concern as the city grows, and a public safety master plan is expected by May 2026. Questions were answered regarding FTEs in the crime scene unit (currently one specialist, hiring two more) and the need for future investments.
Public Works Programs
Kristen, representing Public Works, outlined the department's four divisions: Engineering, Fleet, Facilities, and Solid Waste (enterprise fund). Engineering reviewed nearly 9,000 civil plan sheets in the past year, set city standards, and managed plan review and permitting. Fleet maintains over 1,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment, handling lifecycle management, parts, and maintenance. Facilities supports nearly 70 buildings and over 1 million square feet of space, providing custodial and maintenance services. Council members thanked the team and inquired about integration with growth plans, a future second Public Works Operations Facility (PWAF) in the northern area, and building management systems. The department uses a part-time hour accumulation model to scale with new hires and buildings.
FY2026 Financial Status Report (Through December 2025)
Sandy presented the financial status for the first half of the fiscal year. Overall ongoing and one-time revenues were 1.2% above expectations, while expenditures were slightly under budget due to timing. Local sales tax and state shared revenue performed well, while property tax, franchise fees, and some one-time charges were slightly below projections. The overall general fund (including transfers) was 1.6% less than budgeted. No council questions were raised.
Key Outcomes
- The Police Department presentation was informational; no actions taken. Council emphasized need for future staffing and strategic planning.
- The Public Works presentation was informational; council acknowledged the need for a future PWAF and inquired about energy management tools.
- The financial report was received and noted; no formal action required.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to welcome you all to the regular city council work session on Tuesday, February 17th. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Sarder. Present. Thanks, Mayor Greenberg. He is excused. Thank you, Councilman Haney. Here. Councilman Beffy. Here. Councilman Melton. Present. Councilman Hastings? Here. Councilman Shep. Here. Thank you, Mayor. We have quorum. Thank you. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible for liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, please read item one. Item one presentation and discussion pertaining to surprise police department programs. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I am here with our PD department, our police department. Um, to share with you uh our police programs that are offered here at the city of Surprise. So I'm going to kick it off with our budget. Um they're FY26 general fund um operating exp expense budget is fifty-six million dollars. And as you can see here, that is broken out between patrol, criminal investigations, office of the chief, agency support, and tactical support. And they will um later on go into what each of these mean and what they what they do to offer um the city and our citizens. Um our patrol, you can see here is thirty-five percent of that fifty-six million. Um and then it goes down from there. With that, I'm going to pass it over. I'll let uh Sergeant Hernandez be in charge of the clicker there. Uh so before we dive into this, uh first off, thank you, uh Mayor Council. Good evening. Appreciate you letting us be here. It's absolute honor for myself, and I'll speak for for Rick. And uh I'm sure he has the same sentiments, but before we dive into this, I'll let him introduce himself to you and then we'll get going. Good evening, Mayor, Council. Um my name is Sergeant Rick Hernandez. I've been with the uh department since uh 2010. Uh, I have been a sergeant since 2018, and uh during my time and my years as a sergeant, I've happened to serve in each of the uh divisions that we have within the department, uh, which as you can see there, we have a patrol division, our criminal investigations division, our tactical support division, and our administrative support division. So I'll start with our patrol operations division, and so the police department's a little bit different than I know uh Holly last meeting had opportunities to talk about revenue, bringing in money, and then re diverting that into the different programs really just because of the the nature of law enforcement we really have are just the different divisions. And so how do we allocate the funds that you provide to us, right? And so the big piece of the pie, and Sandy touched on it already, uh patrol.
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