City Council - Regular Meeting

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Welcome. All righty. We'll go ahead and get started. U It's wonderful to have everybody here today. Okay. Um we clerk will you call the role? Corus here. Hallebertton. Morales here. Nash here. Steed here. Willitz four present, two absent.

Thank you. So today we've got our budget workshop on the agenda. Um I just wanted to to kind of set the stage with a couple remarks and then I'll turn it over to Alicia. Um I look forward to this conversation today. This is the first of and what will be um regular budget related strategic planning workshops between now and our first official budget workshop. Um and today we want to have a conversation about um our projections for where we stand um revenue-wise. um what we expect the and because of that what we expect general re um fund resources to be um a discussion about the flexibility or you know I mean to be honest it's um not there's not a ton of flexibility but we've got some so to have a conversation about that um and I really um hope to have a rich discussion with you um from the perspective of both I see this like a collaborative discussion I'm going into this budget with a sense of both collaboration and caution um given the constraints that we have and rising costs um but to have a rich discussion with you about the priorities we have um the ways in which we need to be sure that we continue to provide um the current level of service to our residents. So how we um both provide service external to city hall but then also run the business um at at as the city of Boise and make sure that we have those foundations set um as we're also looking at what more we want to do. And I also want to highlight too that as we seek to ensure that not only today we're a safe and welcoming city for everyone but that we are into the future um that this process both today and then forward when staff comes back after direction for what to bring next. We truly will be looking from a capital planning perspective and M perspective um at a multi-year um timeline to get stuff done. And so part of what I hope to hear from you all today um is is what you would like to see plans for whether it be four-person staffing. We've talked about, you know, as we come back with capital improvement, libraries, and

we'll address that in April. Other topics that we can really um ask our budget staff to to plan out multiple years in ahead so we can see how to get some the things we want to get done done um without necessarily being able to do them all in one year. And then staff is after we hear from staff, not only is my hope that we'll have a foundational picture about those things that we need to do to maintain service, run the business, and then a sense of where we want to head with more and new for our residents. Um, but staff will be able to walk away with direction and understanding and direction on what to bring back um as we pace out the work that we do between now and the um budget workshops in May and June. And with that, I'll pass it over to you guys. Thank you, mayor, council members. Um, and as mayor said, today's uh a workshop um I'm hoping we can really treat it as a discussion um as well. Um you know, we're not uh we're talking about budget process, not making decisions. Um and really I hope we can shape uh the direction that we that we're planning to go forward from. Um my plan is to walk through several things. Uh first, the financial reality that we're facing. Um we're going to discuss what's already committed and what pre pressures we're facing. And uh most importantly, we're going to create space for you all to talk about priorities as well. Um because ultimately this budget is a reflection of mayor and council priorities. And here we are staff to is our job is to translate that into something that's financially sustainable. Um so I will start with some slides and then we'll move into discussion. Um so for the FY2027 budget goals um we are approaching it uh trying to balance

several things at once. Um at the most basic level we're trying to keep delivering the services residents rely on every day. uh we're preparing for a more uncertain economic situation and we're making room for the priorities you you've identified. So we're framing the 27 budget as a run the business approach. Um and that means increases will focus on unavoidable costs uh that are needed to maintain existing programs and services. Um any new investments will largely be supported by new program revenues. um or will be offset with uh some uh cuts or uh reallocations and one-time funding will be maximized uh to address critical needs. So, when considering new or expanded investments, we need to be clear about how they're going to fit into the long-term forecast. And that's really the core tension that we'll be working with together today. um how to be intentional about adding new things to balance running the business with identifying ways to pay for the highest priority new investments without adding unsustainable long-term pressures to the budget. So now we'll move into the 10-year forecast. Um the general fund is a fixed box is is analogy that we're going to be working with. Um and uh the general fund is our our fund that pays for the majority of the city services and almost all of it about 99% is spoken for um meaning uh it is committed to pay for existing programs and services. So that is our staff um contracts um ongoing operations um and that leaves about that top 1% of

the box to pay for new things. Um and on an annual basis in the 10 years of our forecast that's an average of about 6 million and that is just an estimate at this point. We will continue to update our forecast but it's around 3 to8 million on average about $6 million a year. Um so when we discuss adding something new whether it's increases to run the business or new library facilities or um maintenance new programs it has to fit into that one 1% that small bar. Um otherwise we need to make a conscious decision to reallocate what gets funded within the box uh push something out of the box um or find a way to grow the box. And none of those options are easy otherwise we would have done it. Um and so I mean reallocating what gets funded within the box is is a challenging exercise. Um and one that has been explored within the city in the past and one that we are actually doing a pilot uh priority based budgeting with uh public works and the water renewal fund um this summer. But it really involves um uh you know universal agreement on strategic priorities, detailed cost accounting but at the program level and um uh willingness to shift funds from lower priority programs to higher higher priority programs. Um pushing something out of the box uh means deciding which services to reduce or stop. and services uh across the city are things the community depends on and have ongoing costs and obligations that the city is committed to. So, not an easy feat by any means and something that requires trade-offs and prioritization. Growing the box with new revenue is also a challenge. uh opportunities for new or increased revenue um is largely supported by new spending because it's

largely tied to department uh program revenue such as business licenses or zoo fees, that sort of thing. Um and restricted by by state code in that respect. Um and then we're also uh pursuing federal grant opportunities to to grow the box. But as we'll talk about uh later in this presentation, um uh federal grants are are largely one-time opportunities and the city would have to pick up uh the ongoing cost of of any um investments that are ongoing. Um so again, none of these options are easy. So with our forecast, we have um some working assumptions. Um, one, we are maintaining our current level of programs and services. So, no growth driven service expansion is included. Um, we are including some modest um uh increases for wages and benefits for general employees um at 2 and a half% base increase for general employees and then a health insurance increase at 3%. Um, and then we're also including 2% of base pay combined for uh flex rewards and onetime performance pay. Um, and then moving on to endofear funds, we do expect some one-time funds to be available at the end of fiscal year 2026. Um, this will give us some flexibility. Um but it's important to know again that it's one time. So it's not going to change um the structural um uh trajectory of our forecast and we will continue to refine this number as the for as the year goes on. Um but it is an opportunity to make one-time investments.

Some external considerations. We are planning the 27 budget in a very dynamic environment. Uh there is a global conflict that is creating volatility in the energy markets. Um so we're seeing rapidly increasing fuel costs which makes everything more expensive. Um so inflation is affecting many of our materials especially um in construction environment. Um so the uncertainty could lead to revenue um uh impacts to our revenue forecast and um higher operating costs and just less predictability overall. So one of the themes that we would like to leave you with today is maintaining flexibility uh because conditions can change very quickly. So our 10-year uh general fund forecast um is here on this slide at a very high level. So when we zoom out and look longterm, the pattern becomes very clear over the next 10 years, we consistently have 1% of general fund revenue available for flexibility. Um and small changes um especially in wages and benefits can eliminate that margin quickly. So decisions we make today don't just affect the next year. Um they carry forward. Um a relatively small ongoing cost added today can limit future options or require adjustments such as reductions in the future which we would like to avoid. Um so that's why we're trying to be have this conversation to be transparent that this flexibility is small um and but completely within the purview of this group. uh revenue and expenditure trends. One of the underlying challenges is how revenue and costs grow over time. So our

largest revenue source uh property taxes is capped at about 3% growth annually. Um but our costs don't necessarily follow that same trajectory. things uh that we've seen grow faster than that like software pers um workers comp costs for example or construction um have been growing faster than that over time. Um so even if things feel maybe stable right now um it could very quickly tighten um and we could see that underneath um underneath this this grid here. So we're we're not alone in this. Many cities um across the country are experiencing this as well. Um but luckily we are not in a deficit position um like some of the cities across the country.

Alicia, yes. Will you will you touch on why this on the green re new growth rate line it drops from three and a half to two and a half from 27 to 29?

Uh yes, thank you mayor. um we have several um assumptions baked in here to this forecast. So there are some um for example the urban renewal district expiring which leads to a higher revenue in fiscal year 27 and I will lean to Eric to tell me which urban renewal district it is that's expiring in 27. What I'm sorry I thought I heard a dog barking. Okay. Westside Urban Renewal District is is factored into the revenue in 27. 27.

Yeah, that the those things I that that's what I thought it was. I just wanted to make sure that we So, it's not that our revenue picture is changing drastically. If we it would look if we went backwards and had 25 26 it would be in a different spot. Correct. And the other thing is this is just the growth rate. And so it's not that it Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz we're at the percentage. Yeah. Okay.

And then the kind of one thing that I realize we haven't we haven't put in here is and maybe it's forward, but I just want to check I mean given the given the legislative parameters around um municipal revenue and this is something that's happening throughout the state uh with cities and and this region. and all of us are talking about this right now. Um the assumptions in here even looking at revenue are that uh we are looking at fully taking property tax and looking at foregone because that could disappear in the future and given the constraints around growth related to 389. Is that baked into here already?

Um mayor in our 10-year forecast we don't have taking foregone assumed yet.

Okay. All right. Thank you. So the foregone would give us a little bit more flexibility then for those um the investments that might want to be made. Correct. Great. Thanks. Before we talk about new priorities, it's important to recognize what's already built into the fiscical year 27 plan. Um there are some significant investments already committed um including some major capital projects, technology systems um and public safety um equipment um and we also have pathways projects um and these reflect past decisions as well as ongoing commitments. So you'll see here we have um the ongoing investment in Axon technology for police. Um our new ERP system implementation is underway. Um and then there is the uh year-end housing deposit. Um so additional housing investments in 27 as well. And then on the capital side, a number of park projects. Um, and then equipment replacement, fire engine for fire and then as I said, uh, pathways as well. At the same time, there are also significant needs that are not yet funded. These include revenue loss uh, due to the loss of the Meridian legal services contract. Um while at the same time we have a county requirement to provide expanded courtroom representation. Um the capital fund as well has multi-year pressures um such as deferred maintenance on all city assets estimated at approximately $70 million um as well as uh multi-year uh geothermal deferred maintenance um estimated at about $20

million. And then um there are a number of operating costs. We do have known operating costs in our forecast. But beyond those known cost, things such as software per things that could come to us at any time um that would uh need to be funded such as workers comp um just growth beyond what we have forecasted. And then our ERP system replacement, we do have a placeholder that we saw in the previous slide, but as we get into implementation and hiring consultants, our placeholder um might not be sufficient. And Alicia, these are multi-year investments. So um when we have the work session on capital fund we'll both be looking at the projects on the dock like kind of build of parks discussions around libraries m potential new facilities pools what have you but then we'll also um see some of this built into it as well for discussion Mary yes absolutely we can look at what we have slated for the next five years um as well as uh the items you we you see here um And we can also discuss uh the uh development impact fee update which is uh kicking off this year.

Okay, Madame Mayor. Yes. While we're on this slide, Alicia, um I would we don't need to talk about it now, but I think I would like to see um what our assessment is on the courtroom um staffing costs. Uh traditionally, how often we staff those and what we what potential inefficiency we see. So, how much are we going to be contributing to inefficiencies regularly um just based on kind of historical courtroom needs? And I'd also be curious what other cities are seeing if we've had conversations with other cities and um because obviously those inefficiencies will hit all of us. Um so, just curiosity things

and I' and I'd actually suggest that if there's information that we have that we should share it now because this is a big cost impact. We knew when Meridian was heading into that levy election that if it passed, this was one of the things that was included in it. They wanted to have their own system. Um, but there are inefficiencies, none of which we um have control over in terms of court staffing. But if you all would walk through that or if Jamie is I didn't mean to call Jamie on the spot. If somebody's here that could address that, I think we ought to um share the information that we've got.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor Council Member Morales. Um, in terms of the courtroom coverage, I don't have the exact costs or sort of inefficiencies. We can follow up with that. But essentially the way up until November of last year, we were covering seven courtrooms, meaning we have to have an attorney available for each of those seven courtrooms each day, regardless of what's on the court's docket that day. Um, that's jumped up to 10 now, regardless of what what we're doing with Meridian. Meridian will also have to cover courtrooms as well. Um, so we can we can sort of dig into what those inefficiencies are with the information we have. That's the decision the county made that we're now responding to. So, we're stretched thin. What that looks like is adding a couple attorney FTEEs for for our needs to cover those courtrooms.

Madame Mayor Hannah, thank you. And can you speak to um do we know is Meridian required to do 10 or they some other proportion? Garden City as well. I'd be curious how how they um mayor and council member I'll confirm if we have the exact same numbers in the past when we had Meridian's contract were we the person for Meridian and for Boisey mayor that's correct so we had seven and then the city of Meridian didn't have to have people because our one person in the courtroom could jump up and and address any Meridian or Boisey case that's correct

yeah so now it's we still we have those people plus more because the courts have grown without that revenue source and we're covering just one city. So that in itself is one of those inefficiencies. Yeah. So wrapping up on this slide, um these items not yet included in the forecast uh will need to compete with the 1%, you know, with the limited resources. Um along with with any new priorities that we're considering for the uh 2027 budget, we're also exploring external funding opportunities to support um and expand services where possible and with um aligned with our goals. Um so these opportunities include uh transportation, parks, public safety. Um so these can help us advance priorities without relying entire entirely on the general fund. Um they do come with limitations. Um as I previously said uh federal grants are generally one time. Um so if if we accept a federal award such as uh a safer grant for four-person staffing um that is a three-year award. after that third year, the city would then need to fund um uh the firefighters that are hired with that award. So, that's just something to keep in mind if we are committing to ongoing services with with a federal award, but some of these are one-time um and don't have ongoing uh cost implications as well.

And I want to say here too, um city staff has really leaned in on this. Council members were clear in the last couple years that you wanted the team to go in that direction. I wanted the team to go in that direction and the city's been successful in the tune of really over hundred million dollars. We should really get the last the number in the last six years um that where we've brought grant funding to Boisey to deliver for residents. And now what staff is doing um is leaning in even further to then take a look at where we could fund items that are important to this community and service delivery with grants so that then we could use general fund for other and really looking at kind of the return on investment that grants would have and I've seen some across my more across my desk in terms of questions about you know or a a recommendation that staff chase a grant and than even before and we were seeing quite a bit before. So really appreciate staff's work on this because it will allow our dollars to go further. So this slide brings together many of the priorities we discussed in last year's budget work sessions as well as other meetings since then. Um, some of the priorities listed here are more defined um with estimated costs um as well as potential alternative funding sources. Others are a little less defined and we have them listed as not scoped. Um so as you'll see here on the on the scoped side, we have priorities listed for person staffing. Um, we have the FY27 cost listed. Um, and then alternative funding options such as the safer safer grant. I'll I'll note uh with the ongoing costs, particularly with uh staffing, it is just the 27

costs. So those costs escalate over time. So for fourperson staffing, for example, it's 600,000 in year 27, but by the end of our forecast period in 2036, it would be over $2 million. Um, so just to keep that in mind as we're looking at the list of priorities here. Um, for police staffing as a reference point, we have the metric of 1.8 officers per 1,000, and we're showing the cost uh the average cost of one officer. um as an alternative funding option. Here we have listed a federal cops hiring grant um as as a potential um one mile of pathway per year with an estimate of 1 to2 million. Um a potential alternative being the open space levy uh will start receiving that tax revenue um next year. Um and then the library um major repairs and maintenance uh current estimate between 2 and a half and three and a half million. We are applying for a national leadership for libraries grant as a potential alternative as well. Um we have downtown library improvements at 7.2 million. Um we have listed the increase for health insurance. Our forecast currently holds um a 3% increase for employer contribution to health insurance each year. If we were to increase that to 4 and a.5% um it would be $400,000 in the first year, but it would escalate to $6 million by 2036. Um I if a priority was to be wage increases for general employees above what we're forecasting which is 2 and a.5% each year um every half percent is estimated to be about $500,000.

Um and that's at again in 27 and would escalate each year. And then to be determined additional facility square footage and staffing um we're we can we're working on on numbers but uh yes those are um additional costs that would again come from the 1%. I'll pause here happy to take any questions and we certainly have lots of folks in in the audience who can answer detailed questions as well. Madame Mayor, um while I certainly support finding one-time monies to offset some of these priorities, especially the one mile of pathway, I would just caution that I would view the open space levy as maybe um a last resort for our general pathway planning. And to the extent that we're not furthering 10-minute walk to a park access, I would probably not be it's not a first place I would go to for that. But I have uh I do recognize based on our 2 by two meetings that the pressure that we're putting on the general fund by adding more money each year ongoing to pathways that um certainly willing to entertain a conversation of of pausing uh of pausing that if if there are competing priorities that we want to evaluate as a council.

The question on that. So, um, just as a followup, the So, I want to just make sure that I'm hearing this correctly in terms of tier tiering for that open space parks and pathways levy, meeting our 10-minute walk to a park goal and pathways expansion, but we don't want to you don't want to look at that levy as the fund for all the pathways if it means that we don't advance like make progress on our 10-minute walk to a park. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Madam Mayor, I think along with that, um I certainly see the logic behind we have a goal of 10 minutes walk to a park and um and using our open space levy, I think it's a great way to help advance that. Uh the one caveat I'd probably say in regards to pathways and using open space levy if there's pathways identified um that increase safety uh for schools uh kids getting to school or safe way or a safe improve the safety of our residents then I would like to consider using the open space levy um in addition the 10-minute walk to a park and for safety. Sure. And and to be clear, the language in that does allow p the levy to be used for that.

This gonna be ping pong. Yeah, probably. Uh yeah, I just I just add I'm speaking specifically about using it to offset our commitment and not speaking about other things in general. Okay. All right,

Madam Mayor, I think I'll ask this. I think um you know, as we talk about that ongoing thin margin of 1%. And u as we consider these priorities and how that margin will get smaller in the future. And I appreciate how you how you note those things particularly in terms of public safety. If we were to take advantage of federal grant funds, we have some sort of period commitment. Um, would there ever be a situation where a city might take advantage of grant funds, fulfill that commitment of whether it's the three or 5 years, whatever that is, and then may not be able to continue to staff those extra positions, or is it something where where the city would not want to pursue those grants unless we were fully committed after the after the commitment was was resolved?

I'll jump in with the answer to that. Um, I would say that it before we pursue a grant, which I think we ought to consider, we'd want to have the plan for what after the grant. So, um, I wouldn't want us to be flippant in, well, we'll do this and then not know what happens in year four. So, as we look at how we budget responsibly for this community in this 5 to 10 year window, if we were to price in um as we do well, I mean, this is one of the things I think staff wants to know if we ought to come back with, and I do too, a plan for a multi-year plan, a decadesl long multi-year plan for four-person staffing and for police staffing, what that looks like, the time that it would take. Then we would then we would ask the question of okay then what what could we get from grant funds to help us start this but then the next piece of that planning has to be what happens after 3 years and I don't think it's a bad thing we we've asked the departments to look at their infrastructure needs their people needs so that we can have a discussion around public safety funding in general and determine you know maybe part of that plan is uh this is this is what we aspire to do and these are the deadlines by if we want to have this all filled, uh, we're going to seek a safer grant um, in this year and then we'll start with the safer grant and then before that ends, we'll go to the ballot like Meridian did with a with a bond and to see if that works, right? So that that's the discussion we have to have from a capital planning um, and budget perspective, I believe, before we say, "Oh, yeah, let's just add let's add these folks in." Some cities might be like, "Ah, well, we'll just do it and see what happens." But if we just do it and see what happens, then at that end of the end of year three, you're at a fiscal cliff or you're and or you're pressed with we're going to cut all these police and firefighters. Not something anybody wants to do from a public safety perspective or you've got to get a whole bunch of other programs

to fund it. So like it is really important that we that we step that out. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah,

Madame Mayor, um I I really appreciate the staff's work in how we're laying this out, not only for council's collaboration, but also I think from a public perspective to really understand what we're grappling with. Um I know that it's there's probably nobody up here that doesn't want to see all of these things move forward. And I think it's very clear um it's very clear that that's not on the table this year. um and our our budget flexibility is continuing to get uh more difficult and more constrained. Um from my perspective, I would really like to see us working in um into a long-term plan, I guess, like continued support for library expansion at some point. And that's not I think in our library joint meetings that's been clear that that's not happening this year or next year. Um but that that's an ongoing goal and I know that we can't we you know we'll never have the funds to expand staffing square footage improvements unless we kind of start squirreing that money away. That's an interest of mine. And then um additionally the the fourperson staffing for fire department even if that's you know even if we're looking at the goal of one station over the next three years reevaluate at that time I appreciate what the safer grant can offer and I appreciate the um you know entertaining different funding paths to help us get there. That's something that we've heard often from our partners in the fire department. Um, that conversation's been going on for years and I would love to see some long-term approach of how we can get there. Those would be my top interests on this, I guess, on how we can like what that

would look like for long-term planning. Um, yeah, I guess that's where I' I'd start and I'm sure that that will spur some conversation by other council members.

Madame Mayor Um I I'm sure we'll have more conversations on it and I don't want to turn this into a safer grant session, but one one uh uh thing that comes to mind is is something like the safer grant worth doing if you're not doing multiple stations at once and does it just make sense just to fund that ourselves until we want to take a bigger bite at the apple and if this isn't the year to do multiple stations or we can't backfill that in successive years as the safer grant winds down, like do we need a multi-year kind of ramp up to be able to afford that? Um, that's something that would be important to me. I'd rather do four stations in three years than one station this year. Um, but we'd obviously need a plan to be able to accomplish that, not just a hope. Yeah,

I would say on that list, just a signal to probably council, my top priority is increase health insurance to 4 and a.5%. Uh I was very nervous about doing 3% last year, and I'm worried that year-over-year 3% the compounding effect of that, what that will do to staff um premiums, co-pays, and so forth. Madame Mayor, um yeah, along with fellow council members and yourself, I agree with something like the safer grant. We need to take a look, we do need to see that plan of um if we go the safer ground, are we going to go for nine people, 13 people, two people? How is that going to play out long term? And I understand we have a discussion on that. So I I won't belabor there. I'll just but just on that I envision this discussion not centered around the safer grant but a discussion as to whether or not the safer grant is one of the tools that we use to meet our goals related to four person staffing. So just want to be clear about that.

Agreed. And make sure we're revisiting um with four person staffing what what so goal is for person staffing but what does that get us? Does that increase safety by how much? and make sure we have a clear understanding because as we're looking have such limited funding, we want to make sure that those goals and those trade-offs um you know what is the trade-off for that and same with the police staffing is is hearing from what do we need today? What what do we think our um police department needs in the next five years as well? Um so those are two of my top concerns and if I could throw in a third there is be along with council member Nash is understanding increased health insurance. I think I'd love to see what the trend has been over maybe the last three or four prior years. It seems like they are escalating quite a bit and making sure that we're staffing that appropriately. Thank you.

Funding that, not staffing that. Yeah. Thank you. I think we we knew what you meant. And mayor, um I also appreciate Council Member Nash's um comments about that. I think it would be really interesting to see what uh the bang for our buck looks like if we stage and batch these kinds of things over a little bit more than just kind of thinking about this this year. When you say these kinds of things, are you talking about health insurance or public

safety? Sorry. Yeah, public safety related. Um and then on that point of public safety, you know, when we look at the police staffing numbers, I' I'd really like to see um you know, this is this is the number of officers. this is the ratio we want to get to and these are the types of positions that are, you know, first in line for those new positions. What what is that what does that kind of priority look like? Um because I'd be really curious where things like um motors officers would be where we, you know, get a lot of um citizen feedback for wanting more traffic enforcement. We're seeing a lot of benefits just from efficiency and and priority that's happening% increase.

Yeah. Huge. Huge. And so I'd just be curious where um different, you know, not every officer is doing the same thing. Uh where those new officers look if if hey, you know, all this money landed in our lap now or over a series of time, who would we be hiring what for first um and priority I think would be would helpful for us to see what that um those initial needs are that we'd be funding if we did more. Mary, do you have more?

That was the last slide. So, um I actually I figured we'd be talking a lot longer than this or I would have given you guys an extra hour. The I mean, just as we're as we're here, um I appreciate the kind of feedback on what you'd like to see. We don't have a full schedule worked out for all the work sessions, but I will share with you that I envision um each of our work sessions between now and the budget workshops to be to partially include uh followup related to this. There's other things that staff has included as well. Um, but I look forward to and I'm not wrapping up, but just the um a full-fledged discussion on long-term planning for public safety and um what we can do now, how many years we need to do X and what tools and tactics we ought to use to meet those needs. Um, and see that playing out as well. Um, as council me president Steed mentioned, the library square footage. I was in this little blue bucket down here of additional square footage like looking at the capital needs of the city and in April the um library director scheduled to come back with more of that and and then we place that in through work sessions into the long-term planning capital planning as well. So more of those like looking at how we are strategically using resources today um potential grants in the future and then resources tomorrow to meet some of those needs. Madame Mayor, I think that the one more thought is I I also very much see the value in maintaining flexibility where we can. I know that there's every year there's expenses that crop up that we weren't intending on, whether they're linked to geothermal or, you know, a park improvement after something happened to the playground or something like that. I mean, there's just always things for us to keep in mind. So I I'm what I for the

staff, do you have um what you need maybe from council today to work through some of the scenarios on the priorities that have been identified on and I and I I have a feeling that when you come back to us it might be okay we can't everything that was mentioned today are not things that we can prioritize right away but um but do you have enough to work off of now to bring us back some of these scenarios? Uh, president said, "Yes, I think this is a great start in helping us prioritize." Um, as mayor said said, we are going to start a multi-year kind of strategy for planning for some of these big investments. But that that is helpful uh to hear for planning for flexibility because we're going to have to balance the the run the business side as well as some of these new investments that are going to take a couple of years uh to really put into action. So, this is great direction. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, Madame Mayor, I had a specific question on that last slide. Don't zoom in on me. Give me the slide. Okay. Uh, the $170,000 for police staffing. I have the figure $250,000 in my mind and I'm wondering if that is uh cost and equipment. I'll have the chief come up to answer that or the deputy. Whichever one of you wants to

here, you can take Oh, there's some mics there. Why don't you join us?

Uh, Madame Mayor, Council Member Nash. So, the 170, I believe, is going to be the the baseline upfit for a standard police officer. So that would be the hiring their um all the costs associated and then the equipment, the uniforms. Um for every two police officers, we purchase another patrol vehicle. Um but that is a very baseline. As the department grows, we'd have to look at increased staffing. You know, one detective is one vehicle. Um and then as you start building out uh with sergeants, lieutenants, captains, potentially additional deputy chiefs, although I work him pretty good. Um he'd probably like one eventually. Um, I think that that that number will obviously fluctuate. It could bump up closer to that 200, 250 just depending on how we hire.

We kind of run into the same thing. Um, Madame Mayor, uh, Chief with um, what does it really cost to bring a station to four person? Oh, yeah. With that extra person after a time.

Uhhuh. And so I would say one of the reasons I asked for a slide like this in the presentation is I think council members do a lot of mental math with well we have $2 million to spend and this is much is out ongoing. I would just ask that when we do try to capture these figures in the future that we uh try not to be conservative but be more liberal in in what the actual costs might be. So that if we think, oh, we could add two, three officers this year, we might get closer to real numbers. Um, so, uh, if that is low, um, if there's a way we could have a more updated figure, um, so that we have an idea of our mind what it would cost, uh, we'd appreciate it. So, I'm just not saying this number is wrong, just putting that out for why we want to see that and what we want to see out of it. Yeah, Madame Mayor, Council Member Nash, uh, with our strategic plan, we can actually build that out where it would not just be the baseline police officers. We can build out the command structure and what we currently see as need investigated needs. So, we should be able to we can get finance uh, better numbers based on the dollar for what we'd have to hire out the times we need to hire.

And these are always hard too because there's the compounding effect of just this number as well. So, that 6 is this year, it's not next year, right? And then we still have the same limited ability to grow our revenue. So, it's there there's multiple pieces on it, but appreciate the request that we look like larger where we need to given um what different staffing levels would trigger. And Madame Mayor, and just to confirm too, is the numbers we're seeing up here for four person staffing, police staffing, is that the fully burden cost with Percy medical costs included? Um, council member Corass, very close. Very close.

Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. Madame Mayor, it's my understanding we've got a a deadline from our council staff for uh some more budget priorities. Um will we be able to get an updated, you know, when will we see if there's any new priorities? So, for example, climate action priorities that may not be on here, um things like that. Will we be able to get uh forecasts for maybe new priorities that rise out of of that staff club?

Yeah. And what I'd say is yes, you can definitely get forecasts and then once we have those uh we'll revisit this. So, and what I would like staff to bring back next time is instead of the static um slide is given the priorities that we get um what any of these decisions mean with um a section for run the business because we can't forget the run the business piece in terms of 5 to 10 years the way we're looking at revenue projections. Madame Mayor, I would just point out I think finance would probably be interested in D priorities as well if we want to take anything off the list. So, u that's something I joke, but also council, if there are things on here that do not feel like a priority for you this year, signal those things. um or if there's things that are lesser priority um also acknowledge those things because we're not going to be able to do all of that obviously

and then ultimately I want to be clear like what this will do in the next exercise with yours once you have the deadline is that my team myself will look at all of this we'll bring it back with the game out of what this means from a compounding perspective um and then I'll ask the executive management team to work with me and the budget team to work with me to then really be realistic about what we can fit in for that that final proposed budget. Um, and then would want your feedback, but there will definitely definitely be trade-offs. Like we can't even do all this. Um, and there's more stuff that is likely to come.

Madame Mayor, I from my perspective and I would correct me if I'm wrong, council, but I think that if the things that maybe weren't specifically mentioned in this meeting, I'm taking as dep prioritized for this year. But except you guys still have a deadline. I want to recognize and respect that deadline. Yeah. Yeah. Madam Mayor, could I get some clarity from council president on this? Did you mean things that are on these slides that we're not actively talking about or things that aren't mentioned on these slides?

Uh I think things that we didn't bring up on this scoped list. That's that's my interpretation. If we're not calling it out now, it's not that we're moving forward with a built budget, but I think we're giving direction to staff on what to which scenarios to bring back to us and dial in. And it doesn't mean that there may not be others that come up in the um in the council homework that we have. Um, but that but I guess I don't expect them to be as impactful to the budget as the things that we're identifying here.

Okay. Madame Mayor, Council President, I don't know if I quite follow. I would say I feel like what's brought up here is a good capture of things that we've said over the last year and even longer. But just because I didn't mention library major repairs and maintenance today, like those are still things that are obviously important to us and something we're working on and a priority of of the mayor and I would still expect conversations to continue about that even if I didn't say it today. So that's not an official deep priority for you? No.

Um I I didn't I just want to be clear. I didn't take the lack of somebody touching on one of these to mean that it it comes off the list right now. That said, there's some of these all of these are going into the multi-year work that will come back with modeling. Um, and then on top of that, I'm going to I expect to be hearing from you guys some of the others and ultimately can all happen this year and then we'll figure out how and when and where in terms of the timeline. Great. Thank you. I'm going to ask for my one Christmas present and let Santa Claus do the rest. So that's that's my approach,

Madame Mayor. U so these are some of the priorities I know the council's talked about over the last year, but I I'd be remiss if I didn't say we haven't heard from a lot of our departments yet on what their priorities are and what has changed this year. And I think um really need that input to see how it balances out and and how we lay that out against some of these priorities as well. That would be very helpful too. Madame Mayor, do you know or staff know what our timeline is on open on community feedback when that it starts to open? Only starts to see and you guys are racing way ahead of us. Eric, Alicia, whichever one of you has the information on the kind of like public timing.

Um, yes, the uh public feedback website will go live April 8th, so we can provide weekly updates after that. Thank you. and we're scoping out some Eric shared with me some different um software. Will you guys share some of that um that we might be able to use if not this time next time based on um somebody's request I can't remember who requested but just learning more about like participatory software that we might be able to use to hear from public.

That's correct madame mayor uh members of council. Yeah, we are looking at different software options where uh uh residents can uh effectively log log in and they can uh inform what their priorities are. They can you know some of these tools will allow uh a community member to say I want to fund this but then we'll ask a corresponding question. How how would you fund that? Where where might you come up with the funding for that? Would it be from additional taxes, additional fees, from a cut? uh and give perspective even on where cuts could come from. So there are a handful of tools that we are uh currently evaluating um and we would like to like to present options and potentially bring that forward if not this year than then next year.

Anything else you'd like us to be thinking about right now as staff returns to get to work? I'll we'll share uh a timeline that how we see we can game all this out between now and June and take this feedback. But there other things that you'd like to make sure that we put a pin in and bring back to you.

All right. I'll ask if we can please. Jimmy Hallebertton is traveling. He's at by Congress and um Lucy Willlets needed to be out for she's not feeling great. Will you make sure I'm looking at staff but just get their feedback as well? We'll bring that in. Great. All right. Anything else? Okay. We're going to break and then we'll be back here for the noon meeting. Thanks everybody. say we're going to Everybody.