Wilmington City Council Special Budget Work Session - May 20, 2025
Wilmington City Council Special Budget Work Session - May 20, 2025
The Wilmington City Council met for a special budget work session on May 20, 2025, to review the proposed FY26 budget, employee compensation and benefits, capital improvement program funding, and public-speaking rules. Mayor Bill Saffo presided. Councilmembers present included Mayor Pro-Tem Clifford Barnett Sr., Charlie Rivenbark, Luke Waddell, David Joyner, Salette Andrews, and Kevin Spears (by video). City Manager Tony Caudle, City Clerk Penelope Spicer-Sidbury, and City Attorney Meredith Everhart also attended. Note: The supplied minutes are dated May 16, 2025, and state an 8:30 a.m. start, but the timestamp provided for this summary is May 20, 2025; this summary uses the supplied meeting date.
SafeLight / Red-Light Camera Program
- City Manager Caudle reported that SafeLight program expenditures and revenue had been removed from both city and county budgets, and that Council consent was needed to curtail the contract ending June 30, 2025. Council gave consensus for staff to proceed with the removal.
- The proposed budget includes replacing SafeLight with city-owned cameras at the same intersections. IT Director Brian Scott said the cameras would provide real-time viewing during incidents but not 24/7 streaming because Verizon could not support it on their network; on-site recorders would preserve footage, up to about 30 days. Installation was estimated at about $170,000 and maintenance at about $25,000 per year, with a five-year total not expected to exceed $300,000.
Employee Compensation and Benefits
- HR Director Clayton Roberts presented FY26 compensation based on the compensation study completed the previous fall and presented to Council in January 2025.
- Police and Fire: The proposal aligns ranks to the market median with data aged by 1%; adjusts range spreads to the market; creates new Senior Firefighter and Senior Police Officer ranks; and guarantees promotional pay increases of at least 5% for hourly ranks and 10% for salaried ranks. Firefighter minimum increases 5.4%, from $45,893 to $48,368; ranks above move up 3%. Police Officer minimum increases 7.2%, from $48,616 to $52,154, with an additional 3% for Senior Police Officer. Senior rank eligibility includes three years of service, certifications, and performance criteria.
- General employees: All hourly and exempt/salaried grades are adjusted by 5%; selected classifications (grounds technicians, turf/trash workers, paralegals) were reclassified upward; and the minimum wage for regular positions increases to $17.38/hour.
- Health insurance: Employee premiums for city health insurance would be reduced by $50 per month ($600 per year), with changes to deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and prescription tiers. Implementation would occur September 1, 2025, after required employee notice and plan choice windows.
- City Manager Caudle said the total workforce investment in the budget is $8.6 million. The budget does not propose a tax-rate increase; the allowable 2.5% growth revenue was corrected during the meeting to $2.4 million.
Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Update
- Public Works Director Dave Mayes gave an update on the Wilmington Parks Maintenance Facility. The existing facility at 1702 Burnett Blvd was built in 1923, is partly in the floodplain, lacks ADA compliance, and will be consumed by the NCDOT South Front Street project. A new facility is designed on a 7.5-acre property at 11 Melton Road, purchased by the city in 2020. The total project budget is about $10.5 million, with just under $9.1 million available for construction. Staff identified up to $2.0 million in available transfers from unused project funds and interest to cover a potential funding gap. The project is ready to advertise, with award expected in August and about 12 months of construction.
- Engineering Director Dave Cowell reported a $1.466 million construction funding gap for the parks maintenance facility; actual need will depend on bids. Other projects included the kayak launch out for bid, Olsen Park Phase 1 under construction, and Phase 2 scaled back. Streets and sidewalks projects have funding gaps, and some projects are on hold.
- The Transportation Bond Program has an estimated $22.8 million construction funding gap. The recommended strategy is to defer three bond projects and use other fund sources, which would eliminate the gap and leave about $5.7 million for contingencies. Deferrals include removing remaining Carolina Beach Road Streetscape funding, deferring Car Avenue Trail construction while completing land acquisition, and rejecting/deferring Pine Grove North after a bid came in $3.3 million over estimate.
- Councilmembers discussed the CIP funding pressures, project deferrals, and the need for political will around tax policy. Councilmember Rivenbark argued the city should be willing to raise taxes for infrastructure; Councilmember Andrews said any increase must produce visible improvements; Councilmember Spears noted taxes had been raised in three of his four years.
FY26 Budget Discussion and Council Direction
- Mayor Saffo noted the budget was balanced with no proposed tax increase and included employee raises. Budget Director Laura Mortell explained that base shifts in the City Manager's office moved funds among line items, partly due to the new City Hall building.
- Councilmember Waddell asked for line-item clarifications. Housing Director Rachel Schuler described new software investments, including a client-management dashboard for affordable housing reporting and an organization-wide community engagement software pilot with Planning.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): The division is currently vacant. Staff said the proposed division total was $283,000, up from $237,000, but later clarified that the personnel cost is $198,000 and about $205,000 was moved to City Manager administration after eliminating a vacant specialist position. Staff are retooling the position toward internal training, employee relations, and board/commission support. Council requested a concrete action plan. Councilmembers Spears and Andrews supported keeping a DEI role; Councilmember Rivenbark said Council had not received an action plan or report; Councilmember Joyner asked for clarity on the retooled position's purpose.
- Mounted police unit: The proposed budget reduces WPD personnel by $332,043 by eliminating the mounted unit. Caudle said the police chief offered this cut because the unit is mainly a public relations tool and is the only municipal mounted unit in North Carolina. Councilmember Spears favored ending the unit; Councilmember Andrews favored humane retirement of the horses; Councilmember Waddell wanted to keep it for downtown public safety. Mayor Saffo suggested using the vacant Assistant Chief position (about $162,000) as partial funding if Council wanted to retain the horses. Council directed staff to bring back a holistic review of the mounted unit, including arrests and community interactions, before making a final decision.
- Council agreed to keep Downtown Business Alliance funding whole at $10,000 and to consider a standing council subcommittee for economic development and community funding grants.
- Tree mitigation fund: Councilmember Rivenbark said the fund should be spent on planting and relocating trees, citing $1.256 million in the fund (the minutes refer to a $2.56 million tree mitigation fund; the transcript states $1.256 million). Amy Beatty reported the city spent over half a million dollars from the fund this year; 30 of 464 trees planted in April failed due to a supplier issue and will be replaced in the fall at the contractor's cost, with an 18-month warranty and watering contract. Council supported developing a contract/MOU with the Cape Fear Alliance for Trees, including payment for a coordinator and possibly background checks.
Rules of Order: Public Speaking, Presentations, and Proclamations
- City Clerk Spicer-Sidbury explained the current public speaking process: speakers must submit a form by noon the Monday before a Council meeting; six speakers receive five minutes each within a 30-minute period; staff verifies speakers; a waitlist fills cancellations. There is also opportunity for walk-ins if scheduled speakers do not show.
- City Attorney Everhart presented a survey of other jurisdictions. Most limit public comment to three minutes per speaker; New Hanover County has no time limit; Raleigh can allow up to 108 speakers; Durham uses three minutes. Many cities allow same-day sign-ups. Most cities limit proclamations and presentations to matters affecting the general public, with letters of recognition through the mayor's office.
- Council discussed reducing the time from five minutes to three minutes and adding in-person sign-up cards for unfilled slots. Councilmember Spears initially opposed the change, saying the process was not broken, but consensus emerged to move to three minutes per speaker, with mayoral discretion for a one-minute extension, allowing up to 10 speakers within the 30-minute window. Council also discussed enforcing the existing rule encouraging groups with the same position to designate one or two speakers, but members cautioned against regulating viewpoint or speech content.
Key Outcomes
- Council gave consensus to remove SafeLight from the budget and proceed with the city-owned camera proposal.
- The proposed FY26 budget includes an $8.6 million workforce compensation and benefits package, including a $50/month health premium reduction and a $17.38/hour minimum wage, with no proposed tax-rate increase.
- Staff were directed to provide more detailed information on the DEI retooling plan and on the mounted police unit's accomplishments, arrests, and community impact before final budget decisions.
- Council supported keeping Downtown Business Alliance funding at $10,000 and developing a contract/MOU with the Cape Fear Alliance for Trees, using tree mitigation funds where permissible.
- On rules of order, Council consensus was to revise public comment to 3 minutes per speaker, up to 10 speakers in the 30-minute public comment period; formal rule changes would be prepared for adoption.
- No formal votes were taken at the work session. Next steps include a public hearing the following week and another budget workshop on May 30, with budget adoption expected in June.
Meeting Transcript
Chairs here. I'm gonna turn it over. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh good morning, council. Mayor for Tim. Mayor. Uh, we are glad to have you here. We appreciate your attendance today. It's uh we know it's always a strain on your schedule to do these things, so we do appreciate you taking the time to do it. I have uh one thing that's kind of off agenda that I wanted to um bring to your attention about the proposed budget first, and then we're going to bring um Playton Roberts forward because I think it's important you understand the compensation package that's been developed with the proposed budget. But the first item I want to talk about is I want to draw your attention to the fact that the red light cameras safe light has been removed from the proposed budget. I just want to make sure you're aware of that, and we will need uh either some sort of consent on your part to be able to acknowledge that going forward, uh, simply because we need to uh curtail the contract and contract ends on June 30th, I believe. But we have removed the safe light camera uh expenditures and revenue from the budget. We have informed the county um that we do not intend to have those going forward, and the county school system had removed the revenue from its budget. So the numbers have been appropriately accounted for in all budgets, but I want you to to know that that has been removed. There is a proposal in the budget to purchase cameras and to establish them at the same locations where the current safe light cameras are, but it would be a one-time installation, and it would be as I as I recall, it would be real-time um information with regard to the to the uh intersections. It is a more economical way to do it. I will tell you that on the flip side of that, that the red light cameras cameras were uh the one way that the city had to contribute to the state of education in the county. And uh there was some discussion about that at the time that we removed it, but given uh the cost to the city and then the benefit to simply to the county, we decided it was best to remove it. So just that was never the intent of the red light. We're getting I understand that's an unintended council. I understand that. Yes, you said you needed some sort of formal consent. That formal vote. If we can just get some some some consensus on your part that it will be okay for us to remove that and proceed with some process I'm against. Okay, Tony. Tony says real time, which it will be, but we can't have it running 24-7. It's just one of those things that's uh Verizon would shut it down. So we're gonna have recorders out there so they can jump back and go look at when they need to, or if an incident is happening, they can go with that one. I just want to make sure you understand it's not 24-7 rotating because Verizon can't handle it on their network. So just to clarify it. Those intersections where they're placed placed there for a particular reason. Does that placement still coincide with what the police department thinks is the critical places to have them? Right now we're gonna use the same polls and we'll work with them if things need to be changed, and we'll have to adjust the polls, but it should work the same because we mean by adjusting the poll. We'll have to put in take the poll out and put it in another location because safe life has polls up there currently with electricity boxes and everything's there ready to go. So we will have cameras that can do zoom, pan, and tilt, and all the other good stuff. So we'll have a lot more capability. Currently, if the police needs to see something, they have to contact engineering who contacts the vendor who gets the video and sends it back to police. This will be directly going to uh government at work. I'm sorry, that's government at work, bringing in four layers to get something that should be a helicopter. Yeah, we're we're improving that. So police can go the sting center can go directly to the camera they need to see, and they're getting some other software from FUCSIS on another thing they was approved last year. What is the time on that? What is the total expense on this plan? This plan we put well, we we had to motorola was not on a contract, so we had to do it ourselves, and we've enhanced it by having um file servers at each location, which cost so over a five-year period is 300, it won't be over 300,000. We have you know contingency funds in there, case polls and stuff need to be moved and electrical. I don't know what that goes by 65. The ongoing is budgeted in the budget, yeah. That is 65, not really.
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