City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, but it's the same ones over and over again. It's the same place, right? If they get a big enough one, they shoe them out and they just go to another one. There's only so many, right? There's more people. Once you start getting a crowd

printer jam. Yes. I didn't know. Adam isn't here, so you'll have to throw it in his box afterwards.

I don't think I'm responding to that one. I got one here. Oh, I got two. I think everybody, right?

Yeah, you have two two different documents. The April 13, 2026 Auburn City Council workshop would be called to order. We have a single item on the agenda tonight, and that's uh continued work on the FY27 budget. Uh to remind the public where we're at, um so the manager and the superintendent uh brought forth current services budgets. um same programs and services for the prior year um at next year's cost. Um that uh calculated out to a 12.95% um tax levy. Uh the council's previously reviewed that and found the um the cuts to operations is too deep and um adjusted the target number from 7.5% to 9%. Uh the city manager is going to provide a presentation tonight about uh some uh potential strategies to to get closer to the 9% and what the impacts of that are. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mayor Councel. Uh so as we work through this, Kelsey just handed you um some printed uh copies. Um a little different than what you had received um electronically and what I think was in the in the packet as well because the initial was off because I did not include the council recommended uh increases in that initial. It was just the items that the manager had proposed. So now they're included in there. That's what you have. that gets to the total that the mayor just mentioned regarding the 12.95%. So that's our new that's our not new but that is the starting point. So so when we build off from this tonight as we talk about reductions we're starting off that initial budget and then we'll talk about the reductions from that 12.95. Yep. So um so what you're looking at now the between the manager proposed reductions as well as the council proposed reductions the total reduction in the tax levy and we'll be talking about tax levy as well just so that we know what numbers we're we're we're pulling from. So that way there it takes in the revenue and expense changes. So the total tax levy change for the city, this includes municipal and school, uh being proposed now in the documents you have is $1.9 million reduction from the initial that um that equals 1.4 million on the municipal side and the 500,000 that you had proposed to the superintendent uh to bring back to the school committee uh to reduce. So, that's what gets us to the 1.9. I'll walk these through with you uh a little bit tonight and then we could uh dig in as you see fit. So, the the um when we take a look at the manager's

proposed budget, this includes a series of just targeted reductions across multiple departments. So, it's achieved through restructuring, eliminating underused or outdated programs. It's aligning funding with its actual operating needs, operational needs, plus some specific adjustments, which includes removing or reducing some contri uh select contributions, which would be, as we mentioned the other night, it's uh Lifellight um reducing that by that 2,000. and the manager's recommendation. I'm also recommending to go back to what was funded for LA Arts last year and just hold on at the uh 5,000 for LA Arts and the 5,000 for the historical society. Also in here is just some restructuring of program delivery and the business and community development, the recreation department, and then also transportation. It's eliminating soft eliminating software tools and IT that no longer meet our department needs and it's outsourcing certain public works functions. Um and it's adjusting the fringe benefits to reflect the actual costs. So in total uh these changes span 10 departments that represent approximately 1.2 2 million in reductions or revenue adjustments and it's bringing the initial budget increase from the 12.95 down to 10.9. Now to further meet the council's goal of bringing the budget to the nine or below 10 is what I was um kind of working off from. I recommend supporting the manager's proposed rest reductions and adopting these additional council focused changes. As I mentioned earlier, the the with that 1.2 um that's being proposed out of the

managers, it's an additional reduction of 700,000 and expenses in the council column. This consists of $200,000 in municipal reductions. and again the um the $500,000 reduction to the school tax levy. So the municipal reductions, I'm going to walk through these. These are um I'm going to go in line item on these council reductions so you have a good understanding of what's being proposed. And and and you're now moving to the packet that on the front page in the lower right hand corner has the 9.7%. 9.7 That's correct.

Yeah. So the two packets you received, the first or top one was the initial budget compared to the manager proposed. The second packet of that was the manager proposed compared to the council proposed budget. That's the one he's moving towards

for the new counselors and also for um people viewing. um that manager's proposed budget that's now the fixed budget that on at the next council meeting I'll come in and I'll actually present the manager's budget. It'll be this budget right that you see tonight along with what's required in the charter is the budget message. I'll present that all to you. So that's why we wanted that to be that fixed document that you have. So that lock that locks in what that budget will be that you will now make your changes from in the council uh column. The ones that we're proposing are the ones I'll go over.

And just to remind the council and the public um that's the document that if the council doesn't reach um a decision on the budget by June 30th would by charter be adopted as the city budget for the next fiscal year. which is another reason that it's important that it it's clear what that document is. Council Dwell, so just to be clear, that's the 10.9. That's correct. One that we're talking that is the one that we will adopt if we cannot come to any other agreement.

That's correct. Yeah. We're using the term initial on the on the first one. We did things a little differently this year where in the years past I just came in and said, "Here's the manager that was fixed." We spent the last six weeks working through this budget to get from the 12.9 and even the first initial conversation was 14%. So, but the initial one when we said, "Okay, we're working these numbers down, we locked that in at 12.9, we were able to use these six weeks of budget workshops to get this to 10.9." So, so that will be what, as the mayor mentioned, that'll be what's proposed. So, all right. So, from the um the council reductions, these are the ones why I want to go through these line item by line item with you because these are ones you'll have to decide when when you approve um the first reading of the budget. Either these or other reductions or changes that you might have. You might look at some of these and say, "We're not we don't want to cut that." You might have another recommendation for something else or you'll put it back in the budget. So, what's being proposed tonight is that under communications and engagement, we're recommending eliminating the New Year's Eve um signature event, and we'll add some smaller events to what we are providing in the downtown. So, that would be a reduction of $30,000 under IAT.

Sorry, excuse me. We're on page not numbered of the second packet. It it might be easier if uh Mr. Manager if they are going by the master list. Would you agree? Yeah. The budget summary page which is the last three pages of the document starts at the last three pages. The bottom right it says budget summary. That's the master list at the top. That's by department. So it'll be a little easier to follow through by department.

Starts off with mayor and council. Great. So if we start there, that means I'm going all the way down to communications and engagement. Community engagement. If you look at the manager request compared to the council request, that's the first line item that I'm proposing any change. That's $30,000 reduction for the New Year's Eve signature event. But then adding in um New Year's Eve is about 38,000 to provide that. I'm proposing reducing the 30 uh 30,000 by putting 8,000 back into other smaller um smaller uh events that we can be providing either downtown or somewhere within the community. Under IT information technology account number 1025, I'm recommending reducing this line item by 24,000. This is the elimination of the automatic license plate reader camera uh software package. Moving further down under public library account number 1050 proposing eliminate reducing the library budget by $50,000 under facilities. This is the department that carries the capital operating expenses uh for for the city. And so what I'm proposing here is a reduction of $50,000, which would be removing the box truck that public works had proposed. If you were to go through your CIP sheet, you'd see that box truck and you'd see that it's being funded under operating capital. Um, so I'm recommending eliminating that for this year. the emergency reserve account. If you flip the page,

emergency reserve account is a calculation based on the where we're at on the total that actually reduces that calculation adjustment reduces this by $932. And then fire EMS, which is 1021, the next account down, recommending delaying uh this is a reduction of $13,700. It's delaying some training for uh paramedic uh training as well as eliminating some overtime. overtime. If we're not hosting the uh New Year's Eve event, there's overtime that was built in there for the fire department for that event because of the fireworks. And so, it's eliminating that. And then under uh police department, which is the next line item at 10:22, um proposing uh reducing 25,000. And what this will do is it will it'll delay uh the hiring of a vacant position in FY27. Uh it'll by delaying that hiring, you'll see a $25,000 savings in in that in that uh that line item. Those are the recommendations um that I'm proposing from the managers to the council proposal. And um so now council uh if you want to work through um talk more about operating before we get to CIP. We should talk about CIP tonight as well. So um the question is whether or not you want to include these or if there's other changes you'd like to like to suggest or any of these you like to bring back in. It's completely up for your discussion. Mayor, I

I guess I'll see if there's questions from the council first. Um I council count just want to make sure I'm clear and um under fire and emiss in the in the initial request we talked about taking that additional ambulance during rush peak hours off that's back in your budget. back in the budget. Okay. Thank you. Other questions. And so you said coming out of the it the only thing was the license plate readers, the flocks.

There's more there. What what's in the council recommendation is just the flock camera. the under the manager, there was a couple programs that we did some analysis on to determine its use and is it is it really producing what we wanted, the agenda builder software as well as the um open finance. We're going to be working through uh another option for the open finance because that that software just isn't delivering what we want. other questions at this point. So, so I just want to make this this is a lot coming at once. So, I want to make sure everybody understands here, especially the new folks, what what's going on. So, we'll get to the revenue side here in a second. But on the expense side, there's, if you want to think of it this way, there's two buckets of reduction from where we last talked about this at the 12.95%. There's a series of reduction in the manager's proposed budget. Um, mostly based on reorganization or doing things differently with different different uh assignment of resources. And then there is the beyond that what's being presented is council recommendations that further reduce this down to the 9.7. Make sure there's no Now's the time to ask questions. If you have any questions about what the reductions are, how we got there, now's the time to ask them. I I can walk through the revenue if you'd like to. We didn't

Let's make sure we're okay on the expenses first. I If people aren't sure, it's fine to ask for further explanation or if you have specific questions. So what we just heard that review is what's taking us from down to the to the 9 it's taking you what you just heard bringing you from the 10.89 to the 9.7

and all the sort of restructuring elimination alignment all that stuff that was in the 12.95 to the 10.9. That's correct. So, you were able to do that 2% reduction based on not really eliminating any like working with some programs here, restructuring, etc.

That's correct. Yeah, it's keeping it's it's changing some of the structuring of some of the departments. It's um realigning uh some of the departments uh regarding some overlap that we're hoping to eliminate. Um it'll be leaner, right? I think that there's no there's no no way around that. Um we'll be leaner. We'll be um evaluating certain positions um as we go through this process. Um fringe is reflected on that as well because as those positions change or we outsource I think that's that's you know good portion of this is taking some of the electrical services and outsourcing that we were able to go out to bid on that and had a had some good responses. Well, that means we can adjust uh those positions, adjust the fringe to counter that as well as add money into uh the services line item for that service to be done outside of staffing. So, um so, yeah, it it has impacts on positions. We're doing our best to make sure those have as little impact as possible, but um it's keeping all of our current programming um across the board. We'll evaluate certain programs that just we would do anyway. We would look we evaluate those annually just to see how are they being attended? Is it a good response? Do we have a good volunteer base? Or it might change because we don't have a volunteer team to run that program. But um yeah, so those are the highlights.

Count. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um uh Phil, and could you provide a little bit more information around uh so there's the decrease for New Year's Eve. You were going to add in some other events. Do you excuse me, do you have ideas at this point and what some of those would be or

I've talked a little bit with uh communications engagement committee. I think there's some interest for trying to have some regular activities in the downtown. I think Liz has heard from the council, previous council regarding some family uh directed uh programs. And so uh she'll be working at how do we how do we include that in because we still want we still have some sponsorship money that comes in on our signature events. So how do we create an opportunity that still provides an opportunity for that sponsor? Um but what we um what we're looking at is trying to encompass the um event sponsor with some of our other um recognitions in some of our other facilities as well. So we can take a sponsor that might be at Norway that's also sponsoring Ingresol. How do we also incorporate some of our programming, add a little bit to what their sponsorship is, but have a lot more uh reach for that as well. Council Randall,

my question has to do with the delayed paramedic training. Yeah. Um how long is it going to um delay it? Do will we still have enough um paramedics on staff? Uh tell me a little bit about how that would look.

Sure. So we do have um so we are hiring a a good amount of paramedics. In the contract for fire, there's a requirement that the firefighters achieve paramedic status. So these might be firefighters been with us for a long time. And so they're working some of them are working towards their paramedic license. And so say we we schedule uh two of those. I think what the chief is recommending we only move forward with one of those in that budget year. It just means we're delaying one of those that firefighters um to get to that level. But it, you know, he's not concerned of it having any impact on ensuring that we have paramedics on each of our pieces of apparatus.

So, I'm going to give you an example of like in my life and tell me if it actually is similar. So, if you're working in a hospital with a bunch of registered nurses, some of them have associates degrees, but the hospital wants them to have bachelor's degrees. They've been there for many years. They're not going to lose their job, nor do they not have enough nurses that are qualified. However, it's part of the job determination. They have to go ahead and do that. Is that sort of the same thing? AB, it's exactly like that. Yeah, I think the language says as long as funds are available is how they received. I believe that's in this one. It could be in police, but I believe it's in this one as well. But yeah, absolutely just like that.

Other questions? Council, the just want to confirm my memory here. Uh the initial 10% reduction for library is 122. So what we're proposing now is 50 50%. Okay. Yeah. Where we were when we were at going from 12.95 to 7.5 was 122,000 and now it's at 50. Yeah.

Sure. Thank you. Um, with the flock cameras, that's the total amount. Is there any value or any uh and can could you purchase or for a smaller amount smaller number of cameras or is that's kind of the minimum number?

Yeah, I think when we had talked I talked with the chief about, you know, do we change that reduction at all? And that's basically your your initial package. um you lose um some of the efficiency if you're not capturing some of your main corridors. So um you know I think we provided the the highlights for that. I mean I think we you know in the since August I think there's close to 30 incidents that had positive results but so it will have you know the those are 30 incidents that they not saying that they would not have stopped them just you would not have been able to stop them as quickly as they did

and you would have had a less efficient process to identify in the first place And so we've had it in place short amount of time. If we said, "Okay, we can't do it this year and we four years from now we wanted to do it." Is is there an added start or next year? Is there an added startup cost? Would we be losing uh you know would we be paying more a year from now than we would be now?

I believe there is. I don't I don't have that amount, but I believe there was a startup that was within the u within the grant funding and then this is the annual maintenance of that. So when they remove it, they'll be removing those cameras, all the connections to it, everything. So it's not just the software component, it's the actual hardware as well. Council Walker, Council Butler, can you talk a little bit there? I'm sure with what's there's lots of um options for considering where cuts would be made. Can you talk a bit about why these were the selected cuts and what the process has been?

Yeah, a lot of it Thanks. That's a good question. A lot of it comes from the conversations that we had over these last six meetings. You know, having a good understanding of look, we don't want to impact the third ambulance, right? We just initiated that. We want to keep that. We don't want to impact um fire um first responder type services. So whether that be the 911 center when we heard the rec what that would have done if we had eliminated that as well as uh browning out a station a fire station as well as reducing um proactive patrolling and um reducing our minimum staffing on on the PD side. Those were all really to me as we were we worked through this was those were those high level like it would be best not to go there on any reductions here. So then we started taking a look at um PW was that next tier that we really spent some time looking at and saying what can we do here? I think uh a mechanics position was one that we had looked at. It has been vacant for since we created it. We just haven't been able to fill that position. We're really struggling finding mechanics. Um, so some of that we're looking at some specialty work that would have been done by that mechanic just to outsource that, put some of that money in into the budget to outsource and uh and not fill that position. Uh, same thing that I mentioned with the electrical. Those were two positions that we hadn't we hadn't yet experienced. We did only had the one position. However, we had somebody that was here for 46 years that was really doing the work of because of his experience, knowledge, he didn't it didn't take a lot of time for him to chase down and troubleshoot a lot because he had already known a lot. I mean, that was like two and a half positions that he

was going to be taking to fill him, replace him. So, outsourcing that when the bids came in made good sense. So, that was part of that process with public works. Um, some reductions. Um, I think we're able to actually remove the reductions in the materials, uh, because we were looking at some material reductions, but I think we're able to accomplish what we needed to without doing that. Um, which there's really no control over that. If if we're going to have a bad season, we're going to have additional salt, then it's going to be hitting us and we're going to we're going to come before you and say we need to take money out of the emergency reserve for salt this year. That's so if you're if you're stripping it down, you're just taking it out another line item later on. So, we chose not to do that. Um and then the um the other the other reductions was you know related to like um the clerk's office. We had put in for the first time the full $50,000 in the operating budget. We decided to do half of that. Um I think that's a it still moves us towards it. It's still moving us forward with our target of getting all of our materials uh meeting the uh the state requirement on restoration. Um but it's just going to take us a little longer to do that and um really spent some time going through and it had looked at all of our software. We had done an initial review of this, but then we started actually taking a look at um some of our programs of are they accessing it well and then is it providing the product that we had hoped it would provide. That's really the big thing with the agenda builder. You know, there's something that we we're going to have to work on that a little bit more about, you know, was there a piece of this software that we probably should have included. Sometimes when you buy something and you try to buy it at its least amount, when they're when they're showing to you, it has the full everything, right? And then when you say, "Well, let's

eliminate this, this, and this." It just doesn't it's just not as functional. And and I've heard from several of you, it's just clunky to get through that because you've got to click through um some of those to bring up the PDF and that agenda builder and it just hasn't been flowing as we had hoped. um we're really taking a look at how we're delivering w programming and um how best can we leverage and create some efficiencies there. So still maintaining what we're delivering but looking at um do we um do we just change that format of how we're delivering them? Do we do we take a look at really uh trying to scale up our part-time support uh with with rec delivery of services and then uh and creating a good synergy with um some of the students at Central Main College that is using you know their part of their program is within within sports management. How do we bring them in and try to provide um some opportunity where they can also receive credits, also receive some pay, but then run some of our programming. So, uh so we're looking at that. And then, as I mentioned before, the fringe was um that's just a direct offset. But one thing that we did take a look at is we do have a uh a health savings account that we went back and took a look at. um historical use of our health savings account because we've been reimbursing it I think at 70%.

We've been budgeting 75% and but we we're only using is it 45 almost 50

almost 50%. So we're we had been budgeting more than we had actually been drawing out. So we went and said okay what's it look like for the last five years? Let's get a historical review. We're able to make a change in that line item. um to help offset some of this. And then um for fire and EMS, we took a look at the EMS uh capital operating. And so we're just going to we're going to delay that. Is that going to have an impact? Sure. It's going to it's just going to move it, you know, that's not going away. It's just going to move it to next year. We'll have that um that impact for the EMS capital operating. So you see that come out of that CIP operating line item. But then what happens is that shifts the EMS revenue will increase because we're shifting out um that revenue that we bring in out of the operating and into the general fund. So that's the offset and that was about 35,000. And then um and the other ones I've already mentioned that was kind of our process counselor. I think just really digging into each of the departments, giving some time, you know, as a, you know, Dennis, Kelsey, and I just working through and and trying to go back through and really dig into some of the historical pieces, but keep in mind, uh, some of the priorities that you had all shared throughout the budget process. Does that answer?

Yeah. Yeah. Um, with it's unfortunate, I think, that we have to make the cuts and can't fully support the requests that are here. They're all pretty reasonable, I think. Um, with that, I think through what are the opportunities we have to, um, develop our community in a way that we bring more money in um, or more tax base in, which I think we've talked about here. If that occurs over the course of the year, are does some of these items come back up for grabs?

No. Well, not really. They don't unless there's um some other adjustment or change then sometimes we can work those in if we know that uh a program is just not going to happen the way that we had planned and then we'll we can we would we would start here. These are the areas that we look at. Is there something here that we eliminated that should have came back in? But it's really by department by department. We try not to go outside of what each department has approved unless I've come before the council to ask for that change. But we really try to keep it within that. Um, so it would be really hardressed to do it unless it was a special revenue offset. Um, could come in through a grant. So that would probably be um the one area that I would identify as here's the grant or it would come through with a a private public partnership where we might be um having a special revenue account because of a a contract or aligning some program. Um it might come in that way if we bring in that additional revenue.

Other questions? Okay. Before be just this gets all um pretty complicated especially for the public. So before we move on from expenses, I think what I want to do is run down through the department with the total reduction that got us from the initial 12.95 to the 9.7. just to make sure everybody's clear on what the numbers are. So, um in uh intergovernmental it there was a reduction of 10,000 in the arts and culture line. Uh in all the rest of these are in city operating. So, so this would be the remember the total of the cuts from the manager's piece and then the council piece. So, city clerk 25,000. Okay,

you would have to do the math. That's why I'm doing this. There isn't an easy way just to see this list. You'd have to add up what's in the first document and then the reductions in the second document. So, I'm just trying to summarize this before we move on. Make sure it doesn't spur any additional questions by folks. Okay. So, intergovernmental was 10,000. That was the arts and culture line. Um, the rest of these are in city operating. So, city clerk 25,000 communication and engagement 30,000 mayor and council 2,000 information technology 39,300 fringe benefits uh 409,375 and we're going by a department list, but that's not really a department. That's a roll up across the whole employee base, all departments. Uh, public services 181440, business and community development 77898, recreation 153275, library 50,000, fire and EMS 48,700 police 25,000 facilities 50,000 and public works operations S 144 171 and then school uh the school department 500,000 and then and then as the manager mentioned there's a slight adjustment in the reserve because every time you touch this it gets recalculated. So that's summing that up. That's how we get on the expense side from the 12.95 that we talked about 2 weeks ago down to

this 9.7. So, any other questions on expenses before we move on and the manager will talk about revenue side adjustments? Okay, great. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. So, um, when you take a look at the revenue, there's just a handful of changes that are, uh, being proposed. Um, I'll start out with, uh, state revenue share. So, we had initially, um, had proposed that this would be 7,700,000. Uh, we're proposing now to adjust that to 8 million. the what we brought in for actual revenue in FY25 was 8.3 million and what's being projected uh for uh the city of Auburn by the uh the re the state revenue office is 8.7 million. So we feel comfortable with the 8 million very conservative. Um, this is a line item that we we monitor very closely because it's just not it's not a fixed amount. I it's not it's not a guarantee that we will receive that amount. It's based on the economy. It's based on what's what's taking place where a sales tax will be brought in and then the percentage that will come from us. You know, it's it's great to hear that, you know, the legislators are still in session till Wednesday. anything can happen right until that point, but right now the the revenue share for municipalities is in in the appropriations budget and so we anticipate that'll continue as is and we we believe that the projections the the state also is conservative in their projections. They're not they're not they're never bringing in a number that that is too far out of reach of where we we believe that we'll come in at. Um, so so we feel comfortable with the $8 million.

Yeah. Ju just to clarify, so general revenue sharing was in the supplemental which has now been passed by the legislature, signed into law by the governor, but to the manager's point, you just keep have to keep remembering about general revenue sharing. It's calculated every month and they send you a check. And um so we have to be a little careful here about what we book on the budget that it's not the complete amount because if there was any significant slowdown in the economy, we'd be underwater on the budget. Um, I do think I would agree with the finance director and the manager that given the final projections from the state, increasing this by $300,000 is well within the acceptable risk of the way that we've done this in the past.

Yeah. our initial when we did the initial um and Kelsey had put in um under for the finance director recommendation the the final recommendation from the state hadn't come out yet either and so that got adjusted by almost a half a million dollars and so that's why we feel we feel really comfortable with the number that we're proposing now. Um the next line item is the rental income for the uh community resource center. We're currently booked out there. Um, but we know that we're working with uh entities that um sometimes run into their own funding challenges and so we're not we're not budgeting the full amount. We're budgeting um less than that. I think the the full bookout amount not including uh the the drop in center I believe was uh 90 $90,000. And so we had originally had uh 45,000 in that line item. We're proposing um increasing that by 35,000 still keeps us below if it we're 100% booked out for the full year. Uh still keeps us below. So there's some room there in case in case an entity either can't pay or is waiting for their grant money to come in to pay. Uh there's all kinds of variables on sometimes when we're we're uh working with some of our community partners. So questions there,

council, just uh in terms of if if there was additional revenue there that would just go in into the general coffers. It we we didn't set up any like a special account for that building when we were we were structuring, right? Go on the undesated fund balance. Yeah. Yep. The other line item has to do with reimburseed services. So, um, and this is one that has an u an expense offset that I did mention because I knew I'd be talking about it here under the revenue line item. And this is as it pertains to transportation. Uh, the mayor had highlighted the reduction in public services. So that public services department included the salary for the airport director and the salary for the um trying to remember she's um assigned to marketing for the endotal facility and uh and transportation. So she's coordinating all the uh contracts that we have at the interotal facility. Those two full amounts were in the U public services budget. We're proposing that we create a special revenue account much like what councelor count was just talking about because there's a lot of money in and money out for that the funding. So the those two positions alone get reimbursed by the anomortal facility rent and it gets reimbursed by theou that we have with the airport. And so rather than having um this in an expense line item and then revenue and a couple line items, decided to keep this all within a special revenue account. We pulled out all revenue that comes in for inmotal,

put that in that special revenue account as well as the expenses. that line item will build up because we believe that we'll see additional rent that comes in. And then what we'll we'll recommend um is that we'll come before you for an expenditure out of that special revenue account that hopefully will go to help maintain the anomortal facility and provide some maintenance costs. So you won't see that actually hit within the budget. It's being taken care of by itself through the revenue that it generates. Questions on that? So that one uh is reducing it's reducing the 76 uh,378 only because we you know it doesn't we weren't we didn't have the full amount in there because we were just realizing the offset so it doesn't have that full amount but what's also happening in that line item that was the line item that we were also receiving we were booking the school uhou revenue as well and then we had some of their maintenance positions the auditors Now that the school department is on the same um system as us, we couldn't double book some of those because it's already being booked in the school site. So uh so that's why if you look at that total line item, it was 300 and some odd thousand last year and now we're we're sitting at um we're sitting at 111,000. It was 364 the previous year. Uh so that's a combination of what we just talked about as well as uh some school changes as a result of the accounting questions there. And then the last one is fund balance. I think um we're always trying to remove what we have in the fund balance offset. Um some call it a fund balance stabilization tax reduction. There's a lot of different terms for it, but um

the fund balance contribution that we had budgeted last year was 1,875,000. We reduced that by $100,000. So, the goal is that we'll continue reducing that if we didn't have other major impacts this year. My my goal will be that when we increase the state revenue share by whatever that amount that grows, we should be reducing the fund balance amount by that same amount. So that way there there's no real impact that the city's experiencing, but yet we're we're dropping that fund balance contribution. The goal with that is that if we can start reducing that, we should be coming before you annually with what we anticipate for a fund balance. We can well what we know we have from the previous year on a fund balance. We can be pro really recommending here's some capital one-time expenditures that we're recommending that you take out a fund balance and not bond. And so that will be our goal over the next three years. I think we'll we'll get to a point where you're going to see this um be well below uh $700,000. So based on where we think that the growth is going to happen within the revenue share, but only 100,000 this year.

Any questions on the revenue adjustments?

Those are all the revenue line items. So before we move on to any discussion of CIP, general thoughts from the council about um where we're at here, which is the 9.7 um uh tax levy increase with with these various expense and revenue adjustments. Council Randall when we go through CIP if and if they pass it adds to to this right

so so no the so you'll remember way back in the beginning the manager made uh uh one of the meetings u commented on this in that there's a placeholder in this budget because the way this works with your CIP is the CIP you're approving this year what really hits your budget next year is only the interest payments for the year and you don't get the actual principal part until the next year. So, there's a placeholder in here for the um round numbers um continuing with this pretty much the same capital expenditure as the prior year. So it it it will affect the budget if when we go through the CIP, if you add more items in beyond the manager's recommendation, your tax levy percentage would go up. And if you take things off, your tax levy percentage would go down. The thing that's really important to think about if you're tying the CIP discussion to your tax levy increase is that it compounds in the out years because you're only putting the interest on this the first year, right? So, um you know, if you make make adjustments in relative terms, they're smaller than they'll really be in the out years. Okay, other other questions about the 97 before we go on. The last thing I think then I would mention about this just to remind the council and the public is that again we've we've mentioned this in a

couple past meetings but this tax levy uh number is the is the closest approximation that we can make to what somebody's property taxes would go up. What's yet to be um determined is the tie out for the end of the year from the assessor's office. So, as you look at this, the placeholder that's in there for um overall valuation is the same number as last year. There's no adjustments for this the year that just went by. So factoring in the overlay, um you need to get about $23 million worth of um increased valuation. Well, for every 23 million, that'll drop that tax levy number by a point, right? So we won't know what that is. Um we won't know what the additional assessment is. We won't know if there's any other types of adjustments that the assessor's office will make till early to mid July.

Um but um I think it's fair to say that we should assume as we're working on this that there will be some increased uh valuation that will further drop that 9.7 down um somewhat lower than it is right now. So other questions before we move on to CIP council Duval.

So one question about that just so I'm clear if that let's say we drop it 1%. So now we're 8.7 that's a drop in percentage is it a change in what individual people pay necessarily or not? It is.

Yeah. So there's sort of two factors related to this. One's the gross number. So, let's just make a easy example. Let's say that right now you were at um the 9.7 and we applied uh a uh half a million dollars overlay, right? Overlay is potential abatements that the assessor's office provides throughout the year. Right? Someone calls up and says, "Hey, I had a swimming pool, but it got old and I didn't want to pay for a liner. I had it filled in." And they are, right? they get an abatement. So let's say you just for round numbers, you had a half a million dollar that the assessor plugs in as the abatement and the uh had 22 million $500,000 as increased valuation right from renovations, new construction. That would drop that 9.7 to 8.7. That's still the closest approximation of in general what people are going to pay, right? Uh, of course it gets a little more complicated when we get the stuff from the assessor in July. Not every property class may be exactly the same. Uh, and um, of course, everybody's valuation is different. So, so the actual amount they pay, but in general terms, we would expect that to come down. meaning that um your increase in your property tax will be less. Other other questions? No. Uh Mr. Manager, if we want to move on to CIP.

So, we have um we have the CP CIP up on the screen for you. We'll walk through. You also have you also have this in your your packets. tab five.

Yeah. Um and we'll stay on this um FY27 only is probably a good good sheet to work off from. Um when you take a look at the first one, the city share for the airport of the 150,000 that we're recommending for bonding. So if you remember, we we're a joint sponsor with the city of Lewison. City of Lewon has over $150,000 that's currently in their um that was designated from their fund balance for airport projects that are no longer allocated to a specific project. So, it'll be reallocated still within the airport, but to help match what we're proposing uh for a match uh for for the airport. and and that has to do with uh some pavement that needs to take place out there. The record restoration of the 20,000, we will we will come back to this one as um eliminating because we were able to keep it in the operating um budget for a C for a clerk. So, we'll be eliminating this 20,000 from the operating. Um I thought we had done that but we hadn't. So we'll make that adjustment um under your under the council recommendation for the next meeting. So there'll be a slight adjustment there. The uh and and we probably can have a conversation about does it make sense to go ahead and um what's concerning me is the EM EMS operating capital. If we're going to be removing this 20,000 it might make sense to to reinstate that. And so we can talk that through because I'm sure you might have some other recommendations of changes as we as we get going here. Uh the reval, I would just say this is a this is necessary. This is we did a a three-year agreement,

but we broke out the payments over over that three years. And so uh so this is this is a required payment apparatus reconditioning. I think the the the um the fire chief talked about the need for that um and the importance of that say putting extra life on a on an apparatus rather than changing it out sooner than later. The PPE turnout gear replacement um we still have that slated for a grant. We'll hear whether or not we receive that. It won't be just the 175, but it'll be it'll be more than that hopefully if it's awarded. And then um Phil, can you remind me if if you if it was not awarded, is that something that we need to move on to?

It's something that we need to we do need to incorporate. Um we'll work through what we're recommending um in the future for that. Um, but I think I think we're going to currently bank on this grant and then if that doesn't come through, then we'll put it in. We were we were looking to do that over a two-year period. So, what we'll probably come back if it's not awarded, we'll come back for 100% of it next year. So, it'll still be accomplished in the two years and just be a greater amount. This is the EMS capital. Um, it's basically taking some of this is what the uh chief had talked about regarding the cardiac monitors, stretcher replacement. Those monitors were additional monitors. What I'd recommend is we just bring that back in and take out the 20,000. So it'll be a $15,000 uh net change uh for that. But that's again uh up for conversation. No other changes in these next items. And um I can pause there and see if there's any conversations before we jump down to engineering. Talked about that 350,000 within TIFF funding is what we'll draw from. That's for Brickyard Circle slip lane. talked about that traffic um traffic signal was was so that we could get an amount of what the cost would be. Uh however, um we're not getting a great deal of we're running into some interference on whether or not that could even be installed and so that's why it's not being proposed to move forward.

I think Dan really covered the road um all all the items with engineering real well. Um this is any reduction here is just a reduction of how much we get accomplished on roads. And so some of these are really important. So if if we get into a conversation with you council about look, can we reduce this one, change change this one, some of this has to do with that road is already being reconstructed or it's already teed up in another project and that's why we're recommending for it to to be included um because it just we're leveraging some costsaving by doing it at the same time as another project. again, uh, planning and permitting. We talked about dangerous buildings, junkyard cleanups. Some of that has to do with where we think we're at with um because there's a there's a long violation process that happens with these. So, we try to queue up ones that we know that we're we're gaining traction on. They're going through the court process. We believe that one of these might be turned over, so we put that money in. um we do carry over that and you know the finance director is um on top of this department to make sure hey that's you're extending beyond that two years of that that bond and so we need to get that spent. I think we're at a meeting today she mentioned it again. So there was some items there that she'll she'll constantly say on that. If they're not being spent that'll come back to you for a reallocation. So that's how that bond money before that bond money expires the way that we have it allocated on a two-year a two-year cycle. Before that expires, that money will come back to you to say this money this project's no longer moving forward or the project moved out forward and here's the savings within that. What would you like to reallocate that to? And we'll usually have a a recommendation of a project that was

next on the list or a project that might be uh coming in over. And that happens when we're budgeting some of these. There's just we hope for a better bid than we get sometimes and sometimes the project is coming in a little higher than what we had hoped. So comprehensive plan program. I think I talked about this before. We're keeping it right at the 250,000. I think we'll have a bigger conversation about the comp plan implementation next year. you will have received um I think we're still probably on track for a draft in June with the committee um coming before the council in the fall, probably late fall. Um, but I think we're we'll be on track that when it comes time to start working through CIP, there's going to be some short-term goals within the comp plan that we'll we'll be bringing forward and saying, "Okay, these are the ones these are the priorities that was identified in this process that we uh should probably be bringing before you." So, um, yeah. So, under transportation, um, again, these are items, um, I, you know, we're about ready to come before you with a, uh, proposed change in one of our committees and, um, having that committee have, um, some opportunities to come and make some recommendations on some improvements regarding um, traffic safety, I think will be really important. Sometimes it's challenging when somebody we ask somebody to do something, we say, "By the way, you have no money and you but you can come forward your recommendations, but there's not much we're going to do on your recommendations." It's really nice when we have something that we can say, "Okay, you've identified this as a priority. You've reached out to the community. We've had good feedback. We've had good feedback with the neighborhood that it's being proposed in." And uh and we come we come and we

uh were able to allocate some funds for it. LATC. I think I've covered this one before, but we just we set aside the 50,000 to build into the bus replacement. Lewison does the same amount, 50,000. So, it's 100,000 that's being built up in that line item. Public works. You know, we never fund everything that's being requested. And you see that here. Um just these four line items of the 1.2 2 million, the 736 uh for some road maintenance equipment, the recreation open space maintenance, um some electrical improvements, and then um city fleet, you know, that's just not within this. That's all city fleet vehicles um through all the departments. That's not considered uh road maintenance equipment or uh some of the heavier um vehicles operations. So, uh, so you see of the 731,000, um, there's also, um, 456,310 out of operating. Our goal is to move that full amount in operating. So, we'll continue working towards that. I think we're making good progress there. Again, this year didn't allow for a lot of what we had already started the previous year, but we'll get back on track on that for next year. No changes being recommended for engine five. I think we need to just sit on that. See how we we land on all the other changes with engine two. Um and then the the new public safety building and then the last one. Uh oh, I'm sorry, there's two more. Um the Salt Sand building at Kitty 67 Kittyhawk. I think Scott talked about that. We talked about some of the challenges with um delivery space timing as it pertains to storms.

Um, and then the last item is just some uh recreation equipment replacement recommending 27,000 come under operating questions about CIP.

Council count um Mr. manager. The um 755 for road maintenance equipment that includes what's listed in our individual pages. Okay. Yeah. Um, let me just make sure it's might not include all of it because I believe the total,

excuse me, sorry. The 755 includes very specific here. The mastic machine, the sidewalk tractor, the sweeper, and the vehicle lifts. So, you should have detail pages for each of those, but I just wanted to specifically point those out. And we had the department directors prioritize. So, we didn't just say that number fits. It's more which ones, if you're going to prioritize these, which ones would you want to see over another one? I just know that. So, there's there's two items for two different sized plow trucks. Those under a different line.

That's So, there's some smaller plow trucks that are in the city fleet vehicle section because they're not considered heavy maintenance equipment. Those are like pickup trucks, 3/4 ton pickup trucks with a plow. the the uh single rear axle and dual rear axle plow trucks all come under the for the heavy duty equipment. The detail sheets you were provided are in order of this the recommendations. So you can kind of follow along with the department order by going through those detail sheets.

One of the new trucks that was ordered two years ago was delivered um just this week. So, you'll see that out and about soon. Um, fortunately, when you're approving things, you're it's going to take a couple years to see it just because of the timing. We are monitoring one right now with that potentially could be available. Um, if this one gets approved, Scott Scott has conversations with um different uh vendors and um sometimes if a community doesn't move forward with one and it meets the specs that we have, we potentially can bring it in sooner. Uh which would be helpful because we uh those of you that went on the tour and Scott talked about the truck that um it was unlikely we're going to be able to keep limping it along. Uh they had to take it out of service within the last few weeks. I think I figured out where these are, but that's the 7yd and the 12 yard. Those are under fleet vehicle.

That's correct. Yes. Okay, good. I guess where I'm getting at is that um when Mr. Holland uh you know reminded me and kind of multiple times this this season of we there was a purchase of multiple vehicles in one year. I think we need to avoid that if at all possible. So I'm glad that we're I am strongly in favor of adding you know including these because I don't think we included what they were requested last year for a truck. Correct.

No. No. And one thing that we did was um maybe two years ago there was a truck that much like what the fire apparatus they're doing they're they're changing out uh keeping the chassis changing out the bo the box on that uh so that we can move that along so we're not replacing all I think eight of those trucks um at the same time so we can gain a couple more years on on the trucks that have a solid chassis u be able to change out some of the other equip equipment and stagger some of this. So, you're absolutely right. So, we're not looking at eight in one year.

That 5year CIP plan that does show those amounts uh spread out over the next 5 years that was worked through by public works to ensure that the vehicles that were being selected would still, you know, every couple of years be replaced rather than like you said purchasing eight of them at once. Thank you. And

uh this you may want me to wait on this, but I'd love to jump to number six and look at the the payments over time and make sure I'm interpreting your extended sheet. Um particularly how that ties into what we're talking about today. Yeah. You mean uh talking about what we'll be retiring for debt service?

For debt service. Yeah. If we're adding and retiring and and just as as we're thinking, you know, potential impact in the future uh in the in next year's budget. Um, I appreciate you guys bringing in, you know, we we as we crusted, we wanted to keep our bond as a starting point similar to what it was last year. And so I'm wondering, Kelsey, could you just walk me through the like the total principle and interest? Is that what's included, what's not? And um,

so are you referring to the very top there? So the way this sheet is worked out, this large one, the large one in tab six, the top is principal, the bottom is interest, but if you look to the far right, it will total out those for you. It says total principal, total interest, and total principal and interest. And that goes along the fiscal year is listed on the far left. So 2627 is the very top line. So all the way to the right, it shows that total principal and interest. And this includes school as well. This is city school altogether. Um that's everything that in 2627 um is budgeted for that does include if you'll see that highlighted column that's that estimated for this CIP that we're discussing now this FY27 CIP and you'll notice that in 2627 there is no principle listed in that top line but if you jump down to that interest section there is uh 621,588989 that's an estimated interest on the suggested bond. So that 6215889 is included as city manager stated in our our budget um in the debt service.

Thank you. So so essentially we're only slightly higher than that because we've I think in the very small print that estimate what's in highlighted was really what you guys were working off of for the city. We didn't know exactly then it what was coming from the school. Correct. That's an additional. So that brings us up to the 11 million. Correct. Okay. So this that 11 is uh what we had last year. School had a million in there. So um the 10.762 was the estimate for city only. Yes. It's very tiny. Sorry I didn't have

No, it's it's it's fine because I have a magnifier on my phone. I was looking at it. I just I just wanted to be able to make sure. um that that was part of tonight's discussion as we're thinking about it because that's a key piece, right? We've the last couple years we've seen um explainable increases in our in our debt service because of big projects, capital projects, including the you know the referended um public safety building this year. But really what we're looking at is is it's it's we're not seeing a dramatic increase. Right. Right.

What we would see for what you're projecting here is for next year. What I'm missing on this sheet and what I'm trying to find on the others is what was what's our current debt service in this year's budget? Your your question is your question what what was the increase of service that was retired in 26 in 26 and what's the overall change from that? Yeah. What's going to be retired? What's what's being increased? So what are what's the what's the net change from this year to what we would anticipate in the in the previous the next budget? go back to your summary page, your first summary sheet, Kelsey, is that where you're leading

talking grand total or in uh FY FY26 budget dollar amount. There's I mean it won't say 27 million if we're looking at FY26 if you're comparing trying to compare this large sheet but in your actual budget that expense um expense summary does show grand total of debt service in that year's dollar amount.

But I think to get to the breakdown if you go back go start it with your first page of the council proposed this is the 9.6 six, right? That number didn't change. So, if you're looking at the other packet, doesn't really matter, but if you're looking at the the 9.6 or 9.7 rather, um, and we look at the debt service, you're going to see where this is broken out by that municipal, school, municipal public referendum, and then school public referendum. So for municipal what's built into that man uh the uh the amount change of 1,87,164 that's going to be taking your the increase on the now it's ex it's um you're now picking up the full cost of that previous year's debt plus in there is the interest for what's being proped. osed this year. So that million is is that full amount. So one thing to look at when we talk about retiring too. So if you now if you go back and take a look at uh even if you just look at the 2016 um bonds, you have the refunding and then the go the go bond. You're going to look between that interest. Next year, we'll be retiring about a million dollars in in service. So, to get to the mayor's point, if the if what we're looking to do is how do you maintain but also build in that CPIU increase, right? Because it's costing us more to do roads if you're trying to do the same amount, you're never going to get there if you're just doing exact what you're retiring and you're only doing that. Every vehicle is costing us more. Every item is. So if you can start working on how do you build that in and I think what we look at is we don't just look at what we're bonding we're also looking at what coming in operating but then also

looking at what we might be using for some other funding whether that be EMS capital whether that be tiff or uh fund balance in the future. You take those as a combination. You say, "Okay, what are we replacing in our capital to help keep our infrastructure where um where we're at for replacing plus building in the CPIU for escalating costs. So um so that's the million school. You'll see where their um their amount increased to 70 just under 77,000. And then the municipal public referendum is the 3,ion60,000. That's for the uh the $35 million um bond as that's the increase. Um and then the school public referendum, the high school, we're paying that down, right? So every year you're going to see the school referendum drop just like next year you'll see the municipal public referendum drop because we've we've paid we've paid more off. So you're going to continue seeing that drop and you're going to see um I think you know a significant amount. That's a $35 million bond plus the the additional 5 million. So on that public referendum you're going to see that drop each year. There's almost almost $400,000 in interest alone that reduces next fiscal year on that that public safety. Uh but you'll also notice on the far left or closer to the far left of this sheet, we do have some bonds that next fiscal year they've been completely paid off. So we'll see additional reductions from that as well.

And that's the 2016 Mr. Manager you just referenced. Yep. So I guess what I'm getting at is is is um we are not going to be looking at a massive increase in our principal interest with what we're talking about compared to what we've seen in the last in particular this year but the last last couple years.

Yeah. I think um to think about this more sort of as a rolled up summary, if you're looking at the uh at the uh summary, the 9.7 summary, if you leave aside the municipal and school referendum, right, those are specific projects are outside the control of city council. On the municipal side, if you're looking at the council adopted FY2526 and the council proposed budget 2627, basically what that's taking into account is the debt service that's being retired plus the debt service you're adding this year through the CIP. I I I would think of it as several components. it it it goes up slightly but I think that that costs keep increasing right so you have to think about this as the first step is to try to keep up with the capital maintenance and replacement issues it's replacement at least plus CPIU right and then I think the council needs to realize that um there's been a lot of deferred maintenance over the years. And that's part of the reason we've we're in the situation that we are now where we have over the last few years a whole pile of fairly expensive things. The high school, the engine 2, the new public safety building, some of the bigger road jobs like Marrow Road, things that were deferred year after year. So we need to be thinking about this in understanding that year overyear even if you were doing the equivalent amount of work the price is going to go up and we

we still need to try to whittle away to avoid deferred maintenance and you know if you look at the capital plan we never fund everything that's in the first year the fiveyear cip plan, but everything that's in that plan something that's going to me to be done in the near or midterm. So, um sometimes it's easy to look at the capital improvements and say, "Hey, it's not going to hurt our immediate operations," but it's going to cost you a lot more down the road if you defer this because it piles up. It's not like you can just shift everything down. that cascading effect. You get out far enough, you've moved things way past the point where you you have no choice but to do the work.

One of the things that we'll provide next year, a couple things are going to shift. You know, I'll come before you on um the changes regarding um putting together a 10-year CIP. I think that's going to be really helpful. or we'll be next quarter I think running some capital predictor for our uh software system that we've been building for our capital assets. Um, and so we'll run I think we're definitely going to be um putting the public works garage in through the predictor to start with because we've built that out really well and we've built out a couple of the schools really well so far as some of our test um initiatives so that we can really determine what does the next 10 years look like in our facility infrastructure uh changes. But the other piece is that I'm going to want to provide for you. Um, I think the council's made some really good decisions on strategy the last few years and I think it's important to see what's the return on those strategies and so we'll have a good um three almost four years worth of uh data to then show based on these decisions that you've made on shifting um things into operating capital other funding sources that's not bonding. What have you saved over over these uh last three years and what we're projecting out over that what would have been the life of that bond? We're getting into some some additional years now where we can probably provide you some good costsaving that that helps demonstrate that the more we do this the better it's going to be. You can now you're you can do more by not having to pay that interest if we're using cash to take care of these these projects just like in our home budget, right? So, it's no no different. But this is just obviously scaling up a lot larger. So, uh, so that'll be our key. I think that, um, we'll probably have a good

presentation on what we'll be recommending to start shifting. I think we're getting on track, uh, with our audit schedule. So, that's going to be able to provide you when you're coming into these budget discussions. We re we really want you to be able to consider um the fund balance as part of your conversation. It should be it should be part of it. We haven't been able to do that because of our timing of our audit. Just doesn't get it done in time. And uh we're closer this year. We'll be closer next year. We're closing that gap every year. And so um there's a variable there that we don't have any control over, but we're we're working through that. And uh because that should be part of your conversations. It should be how can we apply what we have if we're beyond the amount of where the policy sets for fund balance. How can you take that amount and apply it to some one-time capital operating so that we're not bonding it?

And I can say with confidence the next budget cycle you will have our most recent audited fund balance total. We are on that timeline. Other questions? Council Dval.

Well, I just um I know so I met with um Kelsey earlier this week and just knowing like we see that current year of the CIP and it's like banana pants to use a technical term. Um having some idea of actually what what are the priorities within there. I mean, I know we do that as part of this process, but I think the five-year plan, having some realism in that year one of the five-year plan, I think helps everybody understand exactly what's going on here and just a little more clear. So, I don't know whether that's something you can work toward, but that would certainly help me and would probably help the public.

Yeah. A lot of a lot like what we had discussed is that uh part of it and and how we got to where we are today with showing that big long list u of everything that was asked for it. Part of it is to show that we have actually worked through this and this is everything that all of these departments have found that they need in the next couple of years. Um as the mayor had stated, removing those items this year doesn't mean they go away. They're still needed items. But we have talked about uh presenting the plan in a in a different way moving forward. Um really working out that 10-year plan and we're talking about fiveyear but really working through that 10-year plan and having very specifically um I wish I had a better word or way of saying this but the drop dead date of this is when we cannot go beyond this date for this project. And that doesn't mean that we'll ask for it on that date. It means we're going to ask for it in in this fiscal year. not missed this um but in a certain fiscal year and know that if we push that there's only so far that we can push that. So having that plan laid out is is part of what we've been working towards uh moving forward. But that just kind of like I said I know we talked about it but for everyone else um that's why that requested amount is shown because uh prior councils have asked to see okay where did you start? How did you get to where you are now? Um so it does look kind of messy. There's a lot in there, but that doesn't mean that those items are not needed. Just means sometime in the next couple of years, these items are important and the ones that we end up moving forward for recommendation are the very high or high priority items.

Council, excuse me. Um, I just want to appreciate, uh, Mayor Harmon, your your far more eloquent, uh, and precise description of what I was trying to get to, but too too long of a day today, I think. But what I ultimately I'm really pleased with where we've landed here. Um I think we've identified um and continued what what we've just heard and in statements from here that these are not just the highest highest priority but there's some innovative and and creative ways continuing to come in here. for example, the Mastic um machine. I I think that's a great opportunity uh that was brought forward because there's some savings there that that it's a more efficient. I believe they they've seen that it's more durable, but there's also I think I remember hearing that there's less re personnel resources necessarily involved. So, there's a lot of good creative ways in here. And I just I think we've also then balanced with the need of okay, we don't have we've just had two very large necessary increases in debt service, that's not going to be as big, but we're still getting to at least spreading some things out. Cuz to to your point, Mayor, I fully agree. If we if we don't try to take care of these and we we we push ourselves to a cliff, we're paying more and we're having to pay for more projects that are now more costly. So, I'm I'm in feeling good about where we are with this. Uh, just want to get that on the record. I think that a lot of uh hard decisions to get cuts in the operating, but also um I think the CIP is in a good place. So,

other questions about the budget before we move on to talk a little bit about schedule.

I'll just give an update, too. Um, we were able to go out to 67 Kittyhawk. That's another capital project strategy that the council had regarding that facility. Um they're in the final stage of the punch list on that. We went in um today. Uh facility looks great. It's ready for it's really ready for fire to move in. Few um few small projects through that punch list to get done. Uh but it's going to be a great space uh for fire and uh the facility came out really well and came in. I think the the fire chief and the team really worked at how do we try to save as much much as we can here but still have that facility and um almost a a turnkey for public works. And so the things that definitely needed to be done were done. There's still some changes that need to happen when um PW moves in because they did create uh some living quarters upstairs that PW won't need. And so there'll be some changes that we need to do with that. But uh facility looks great, right on track. Timing is perfect. I think we talked with the fire chief today. They're going through and really identifying what needs to, you know, when you've been in a building for over 60 years. There's a lot of things that just gets tucked away and stored and you never use. So they're going through to try to do as much reduction in in what they have there as they can so that the move that takes place to uh Kittyhawk and then what needs to be moved to uh Engine 2 and on South Main Street, then what comes back and to the new public safety building. They have a great plan. They're working through that. But I just want to give an update on on 67 Khog because that that was a real strategic move by the council to uh to get that in place and uh it's nice when you see a project actually get ready and and see

the benefits of it. But they did a super job. We end up they end up u using some of our maintenance staff for some of the painting inside. Saved us a decent amount of money and uh rather than outsourcing that and they did a fantastic job. And so uh so kudos to that team. Uh it's really it's going to be a great space for the fire department.

Um thank you for that update. So before just before we move on to schedule, so we're at 9.7. We've talked about the expense and revenue adjustments. Um any thoughts that counselors have before we move on on this? Are people comfortable at the 9.7? Is there more work to be done? Um, I guess I would ask that as the first cut at this and not necessarily specific adjustments, but what are people thinking about the 9.7? Council Walker,

thank you. Uh, of course, we'd all like to see it lower, but I think this is reasonable. I I think they've done a great job to to do what they've done on their end to come in uh at uh the 9.7. So my opinion is I think we got to go forward with what we've got.

Yeah. Just just as a reminder too, remember the 9.7 on an operational basis is 4.7 because five points of this is a bunch of things that are rolled up that are outside the council's control. uh you know debt service, county tax, some you know intergovernmental things that you we we can't really change. So other other comments folks have the council butler I I would concur at face value this is feeling pretty good I think in terms of moving forward still want a little time to digest it all and really dig into it a little bit but overall yeah appreciate the work on it

same don't have anything to add I think this is looking a lot better than it was a week or two ago the only comment is I' I I do look forward to hearing what um cuts the school department specific, you know, that they talked through and will be proposing, but other than that, I think this is in good shape.

I appreciate all the work that went into this. You guys have done quite a bit. Um I would love to see it lower. I know that that's not reasonable. Um it doesn't it this works better for the people in the city. they're going to feel like they're not getting everything cut from them. But I just want to acknowledge that I know how hard it's going to be when they get their new tax bill. But I do understand we do have to probably move forward with this.

Council Gary, any still trying to digest everything that I've heard tonight. So, um just a little bit of discussion about schedule here. So, the uh council wasn't able to be here tonight, but he'll be um uh with the school committee Wednesday night. So, they'll take up the request from the council for the $500,000 reduction. Um we have a short work session on the 21st before the regular council meeting. So, um, we'll hear, um, some feedback, some impact statement from the school committee about the $500,000. Um, I would encourage, um, counselors, as you sort of work through this, if you have specific questions, contact the manager about any particular line items. I know that um, there's a there's a lot of changes when we bring this forward. So, as you work through this, if you if you need clarification on anything, contact the city manager and he'll be able to get answers to your questions. So, um next Monday when we meet besides hearing the school, um if counselors have any thoughts about the um reductions um that we talked about tonight or the adjustments on the revenue side as well, we can certainly talk about those. um the um end of the month on the 30th, the the manager, this is kind of a ministerial task at this point because he's provided tonight his proposed budget, but that will be uh it'll be finalized at that point and then the first meeting in May. Uh we have to adopt the school budget. So,

we'll really have to think through this next Monday night from what feedback we get from the school committee. Uh, excuse me. That's right. Tuesday because it's a holiday. Thank you, Council Gary. On Tuesday night, um, because there's a timing issue with the preparation of the school referendum budget ballots for June 9th. So, we need to adopt the school budget by the 4th. So, we'll have to reconcile where we are here at the uh at the next meeting on the 21st. Um and then on the 4th uh hopefully uh unless we have some significant changes from where we are tonight, we'll start in with the first reading of uh the city side of the budget and the CIP. So, Mr. Manager, any other thoughts on schedule? Any um questions about the schedule from the council? Any you have anything further for this evening? Uh Mr. Mayor?

No, I I appreciate the work. I I think uh when I was going back through and I'm drafting up the budget message, I think this actually is the seventh workshop that we've talked about budget. So, uh great work by the council. I think we've we've tried to take as we go through we hear, you know, collectively where the group is and we try to make those adjustments based on what we're hearing, what we're getting feedback on from the community. All that goes into this process. And so um so on on uh the 21st I I'll walk through that budget message and and I do like the way that we did it this year. Sometime usually I present that budget message before all this process happens. And so you get a budget message that's not just doesn't match up with what we finally did for work. And so um so I like this process. I think it works really well. uh we'll be updating all the documents for the um on the website so that the public will have it. Uh we'll make sure that budget message is posted in advance as well with the final documents. So uh what you'll see in your document unless there's any changes that take place as the mayor said if anything happens on the 20 21st where there's an adjustment but what you'll see is what we're proposing right now for the council. item. When you vote on that, that's what you'll be voting on. You won't be able, you won't necessarily need to make all these line item changes to the managers. It's what we'll have in there right now that we've discussed tonight. Um, and then any changes that might happen on the 21st. And so, um, but I just want to make sure the council knows that you have that process on you're going to have a public hearing. The public will come in and speak to the budget and then you'll take the first reading. that's the time where if there's any amendments that's you're you still have that opportunity. So I just want you to know there's a good

process for that to happen. Um and then but the school budget as the mayor said to hit that timeline it's a separate order. You'll adopt that separately as you go through and uh um we'll have that teed up. We usually do that first so that when you're you have the first reading of the full city the f the full city budget it includes that school appropriation that you just bud you just voted on. So I think that's it. So like the mayor said if you've got questions just reach out. We'll we'll work through because as you there's a lot of layers to this and so if you if a constituent listens and then they follow up with you and they want some clarification just let us know. We'll let me know and we'll make sure we get that for you. Any final thoughts or questions from the council? Not thank you very much. Would council be adjourned.