City Council Budget Work Session 8-12-2025
Friday, September 12, 2025
2026 City Budget planning
Proposed tax levy increase reduction strategies
Potential hiring of a full-time police officer
EDA (Economic Development Authority) funding
Allocation of capital funds for ladder truck
Evaluation of internal vs. contracted HR services
Fire department staffing and retirement fund contributions
Notable Quotes (4)
If you take away that full-time officer, we are at the 8% number that the council has requested which would mean the tax rate when goes down slightly.
If you peel back, I'm going to call it the onion because it's just layers like pull back the police officer. Now, we're at eight... If you go back and pull off the $200,000 towards the ladder truck, now you're at six.
I don't know that having a on the side service every so often is enough. Personally, I think that that's a really important piece of what protects our employees and that without having a formal HR department, I think that's an issue.
It's like if you take one thing out of the equation, it doesn't equal $1 over here because then there's levy dollars have to get built back in to cover the retirement.
People (6)
Presents budget spreadsheets and explanations for levy adjustments.
Leads the work session and keeps council members on agenda.
Advocates for transparency in budget line items and re-evaluating capital spending.
Maintains a firm stance on limiting the tax levy increase to 8.2%.
Participates in fiscal discussions regarding tax levy caps.
Questions budget history for capital projects and advocates for internal HR support.
Places Mentioned
Events & Meetings (3)
- Work session, August 2025 (Date implied by context)
- Proposed follow-up meeting August 26, 2025
- City Council meeting early September 2025