This study session focused on the city's projected $9 million general fund deficit for 2026. City Manager Vicki Baker and Finance Director Craig Warner presented results from extensive community outreach and detailed revenue and reduction options. Council members discussed potential levy measures, a new public safety sales tax, fee increases, and the need for long-term economic development. No final decisions were made; staff was directed to provide additional analysis before the Council's early July deadline for ballot measures.
2026 Budget Options and Recommendations
All right. I call this council meeting back into order. Roll call, please. Berg. Here. Brown? Here. Buy yours? Present. DCL? Here. Glenn? Here. Herrera is absent, and Roy is absent. All right. Next up is public comment. We have allowed fifteen minutes for public comment this evening. If you'd like to uh do public comment tonight, there are uh sheets in the back, if you would fill them out and please bring them up to the clerk. State law prohibits electionering at city facilities, so during public comment, speakers cannot campaign or against candidates or support or oppose any ballot measure in any upcoming election. So first up is Randall. Close enough, okay. Um in the red T money for something as frivolous as the trolley. But taking taxpayer dollars and spending them for the trolley when our streets in my neighborhood are asphalt over dirt, not road base. And so they crack, sink, you get water moving underneath, you get a whole ditch where the the asphalt is just ditched out. It sinks, it's still there, but it's six inches lower than the rest of the the area. There's uh dips all over that keep forming, and if you're on a bicycle and you hit those and you're not aware they're there, you could easily go over the handlebars, which could be a lawsuit for the city. Um the uh engineers are trying to they patch things regularly, but not keeping up with it. So what needs to happen is those asphalt streets need to be ground up and road base needs to be put down and then repaved. That's gonna be very expensive. Millions, if not a billion for the whole neighborhood. Um so whatever TBD money going to something like the trolley when that needs to be done is insane to me. I I just think it's so irresponsible. So basically it. Thank you. Give this to you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next up is Ann Knapp. Hello, thank you for taking public comments tonight. Um, I guess one of my main concerns is what caused the nine million dollar deficit in the first place. I'm sure you know what it is, but it would be good to avoid um creating more deficits in the future. Um I I agree with um Randall on eliminating the trolley maintenance, it's only $10,000, and I'll come and talk to you about the TBD projects um next week when you've got the TBD hearing. But I think that that's money that we could spend elsewhere. Um the transportation benefit district and transportation benefit district sales tax. That's the staff is recommending reserving that for future transportation capital needs, and I didn't know what those needs are or why that money might not be spent now if it's going to be collected now. Um I did talk a little bit to your finance director about impact fees, and they've been in place ever since the Growth Management Act was um created, and I think the city should really look at using impact fees. I think they would really be beneficial. Uh the municipal research and services center is a nonprofit organization that helps local governments across the state, and they provide legal and policy guidance on any topic, and they have a lot of sample ordinances and so forth, so I think they could help us get impact fees. We might not get that in in place for this upcoming budget year, but I think if we began working on those for future years, it would be very beneficial. And the development on Knob Hill, there's no crosswalks for um people from my neighborhood to get over there.