City Council - workshop

THIS IS OUR BUDGET WORKSHOP THIS IS OUR BUDGET WORKSHOP FOR FISCAL YEAR 26-27. FOR FISCAL YEAR 26-27. THE DATE IS FRIDAY, AUGUST THE DATE IS FRIDAY, AUGUST 21ST, 2026, AND THE TIME IS 21ST, 2026, AND THE TIME IS NOW 2-18 P.M. NOW 2-18 P.M. COUNCILWOMAN NICOLE REYNOSO.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, I'm going to go ahead and turn this over to our city manager.

Thank you. All right, we will open it up to the council, my colleagues, to have a discussion or ask any questions, make any comments. Councilman Pinedo.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I want to thank the administration, city manager, your staff, finance, Fernando, Sol, the whole team. And first of all, because I mean, I know how difficult and time consuming it is to put a budget together. I mean, I say it as someone that has to do the same as part of my job, too. And not only that, but the fact that what we're going to show to the residents this year, it's something that It reflects not only the commitment that we have as a city, but at the same time, the great, great work that you guys do. So, and I just want to point a few things that I thi

Thank you, Councilman. Anyone else? Councilman Porras?

Councilor Reynoso. Thank you. Well, I'm going to echo a lot of the things that were said. First and foremost, thank you to the finance department for the excellent job that you always do. to the department directors that have participated in this process, looking into your departments to see where things could be cut, have also been helpful. Like I always say, this is a city of excellence, and I believe this budget reflects that. So to be able to continue, I see the city as a product, right? To be able to continue to give the services that we do, to be able to continue to have the morale withi

Thank you, Councilwoman. I just want to also echo the comments of my colleagues. And thank you guys again. I know we've had the discussion many times and the process. And all of this starts with our strategic plan and the workshops. And at that time, the discussion, and I know I had the discussion with the city manager and all of you, that there was a plan this year to find the additional reductions were possible, be very thoughtful and intentional with how we planned the budget, with a clear decision that we were going to be lowering the millage rate to set an example, as we've done in the pa

$100,000. So here's what I propose. We are projected to raise probably another $300,000 in parks and police for kids this year. We have the funds that we raised last year, plus we got $150,000 from the state. We do plan with the new executive director to apply for larger funds this year at the state, and we anticipate getting those. So my proposal is that we move some of the subsidized programmings in this budget right now. I believe if we go to parks, I've marked a few, like our special needs, some of our special needs programming, the summer camp to the tune of, Fernando, if you can help me

I will get you the exact amount we have budgeted to spend in PP4K. I still want to leave some funds there for new programming we want to start, but I think we can take about $300,000. to $350,000 to take off the hands of this budget and shift over and then maybe we can I'm not saying necessarily I don't want to unbalance the budget but let's use those funds to refund the hardship grant and maybe a couple of other things that we can look at that we chose to defund since we're now getting private sector funds to take on some of that subsidized programming that meets the mission of PP4K so it's n

Yeah, I'd like to just, if we could have during our discussion, I know we've talked about it briefly in the past and we waited to see the entire budget. I really don't think there's even anything to pick up. I think everyone did such a great job of reducing professional services, looking at all the opportunities that exist now, not just with AI, but just with having a complete staff that's totally capable. of getting our priorities done. So I don't think there's anything to pick at in this budget. I think that there's opportunities to continue to invest in the right places. So I'd love to sit

Other than that, congratulations. Every single one of you did a great job and truly listened to the direction we gave to be able to provide relief, continue to improve service, and continue to be an exceptional city.

Thank you. All right. Is there any other comments or questions? All right. Motion. Being known, motion to adjourn the budget workshop. Second by Councilman Bineto. All in favor say aye. Aye. All right. Our budget workshop is adjourned. And we will start our special called meeting for health insurance.