[{"_1":2,"_86":-5,"_87":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,74],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":56,"_73":56},"mediaId",6323777,"mediaKeyId","2341043-93c0f7ced812be216845e4156e76efee","parentId",2341043,"title","Raleigh staff say parks, water and public safety ranked highest in FY26 budget outreach; sidewalks and leaf pickup were most-cited gaps","audioSeconds",1032,"startMs",68630,"endMs",1101000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2341043-93c0f7ced812be216845e4156e76efee&start=68&end=1101","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2341043-93c0f7ced812be216845e4156e76efee/thumbnail_68630.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6323777/Raleigh/Wake-County/North-Carolina/Raleigh-staff-say-parks-water-and-public-safety-ranked-highest-in-FY26-budget-outreach-sidewalks-and-leaf-pickup-were-most-cited-gaps","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6323777-5a0ae1791c2dac6b7e2ffaac254577d3/orig.mp4?Expires=1775337909&Signature=ILjg-WBBHwSVis3Hy~xuv3oA7cRJPMduF80923XPttK8Mant78iZndA2oqunXiVHCMgcKS8oHMlVZJqM8yvA0Rwqvv5IFdzajpTERirApyi4jHOfnCFzYcGaOjRXZOs09o2KNJNoLVvDnL4KWNgXozleRbTrh7O8L1LgzZ77bFw~HyKL62aPfxfNrDncZjQkpWfm4npBFkB7TPULn389397Xa6GK3jvgUOVhUdeAe72g9cbRt4ki7ks7F8ziSuKQEcGCPPUUTuvKxZxUifBaycz5KHmeLGkP9HtQeH3BWBU1uW3RKZSx1V6wibud9o5aDDSr72qZtfJsgyIKo1e7yg__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","","date","2025-02-18T10:32:21Z","article","Sadia Sitar, director of Budget and Management Services for the City of Raleigh, told the mayor and council during a budget work session that staff conducted targeted outreach for the FY26 budget development process that combined virtual meetings, five in-person listening sessions across council districts and public events including a Budget and Brews night.

Sitar said the outreach emphasized three goals — education, access and feedback — and that staff provided interpreters, childcare and a four‑page “budget at a glance” to make material more accessible. “This year, we took it a step further, and we're a little targeted in our approach,” she said, describing five structured questions asked at each session and live response collection through Slido.

The nut graf: City staff plan to fold the community feedback into department budget discussions and to return with additional work sessions in March and April before the city manager’s proposed budget is published in May.

What staff did and who they reached

Sitar said the city’s communications team used digital advertising, email marketing, radio (Spanish and English) and in-person signage to promote sessions. Communications Director Robin Diekel told council that Facebook produced the most impressions and engagement for the budget outreach. “Facebook is by far our most, impressions and engagement on the budget survey. Really? Yes, by far,” Diekel said.

Sitar described the engagement mix as two virtual sessions, five in-person sessions held in the evenings across council districts (Abbott's Creek, Millbrook, Laurel Hills, Pullen Park and Barwell Road) and a return of Budget and Brews downtown. Staff also demoed an interactive budget dashboard; Sitar said about 35% of attendees had heard of the dashboard and 11% had used it.

What residents said

According to Sitar, more than half of participants named parks, greenways, trails and pools among the city services they value most. Raleigh Water, stormwater and solid waste also received frequent praise, and participants singled out firefighters, police and 9-1-1 call takers for public-safety appreciation.

When asked what is missing at the neighborhood level, attendees most often cited sidewalks, street maintenance, bus frequency and bus shelters, traffic calming and affordable housing. On a citywide question, responses were more diffuse but included housing, transportation and maintenance as recurring themes.

Asked which services they would be willing to cut, participants repeatedly raised seasonal loose-leaf collection. Sitar said leaf pickup was “the big four‑letter word” that appeared at sessions; she added that she has already spoken with the transportation director about the complaints.

Methodology and limits

Sitar said staff used Slido to capture responses in real time and that verbatim answers will appear in the engagement report. She also cautioned that the Slido tool does not identify repeat responders by person, so responses may be amplified by attendees who participated at multiple sessions. When asked how many people contributed to a sample word cloud, Sitar said it represented responses from 21 people with multiple answers.

Participatory budgeting and next steps

Sitar said participatory budgeting (PB) had been intensive and that staff are coordinating with Transportation and Parks to deliver projects that resulted from the prior PB cycle; she said the budget office lacks dedicated staff capacity to run PB at scale and that council may want to consider resourcing if PB continues.

The city will incorporate the outreach findings into budget development meetings with department directors. Sitar said the next council budget work session on personnel and HR topics is scheduled for March 10, a session on annual grants and enterprise departments is scheduled for April 7, and the city manager’s proposed FY26 operating budget and five-year capital improvement program are scheduled for May 20.

Ending

Sitar closed by reiterating that the full engagement report, including verbatim Slido responses and staff notes, will be published before the proposed budget is released and will inform department budget discussions and the manager’s May proposal.

","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Raleigh City Council Budget Work Session - February 17, 2025","oneSentenceSummary","Sadia Sitar, director of Budget and Management Services for the City of Raleigh, told the mayor and council during a budget work session that targeted outreach for the FY26 budget included two virtual sessions, five in-person district meetings and public events; participants most often praised parks, Raleigh Water and public safety and repeatedly raised neighborhood sidewalk and transit-frequency concerns.","taxTitle","Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina","taxId",4736,"location","headline","shortSummary",{"_33":75,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":76,"_41":77,"_43":78,"_45":79,"_47":80,"_49":81,"_51":82,"_53":83,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":84,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":85,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":56,"_73":56},6323772,"Raleigh previews five-year CIP and steady‑state financing options; fire stations and transportation lead requests",2850,1979280,4830000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2341043-93c0f7ced812be216845e4156e76efee&start=1979&end=4830","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2341043-93c0f7ced812be216845e4156e76efee/thumbnail_1979280.jpg","/articles/6323772/Raleigh/Wake-County/North-Carolina/Raleigh-previews-five-year-CIP-and-steadystate-financing-options-fire-stations-and-transportation-lead-requests","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6323772-7f0a80a12b2d2b1ebe26bfd5a93368b1/orig.mp4?Expires=1775337909&Signature=TgBLsOxYV7zYu~~3oO2aquaFs0jWUZrcWy3cjETkIewLP6XwocJm37J2NdkULgtOcAAgmoduXOb2T~Al6vX1erac8hYxI91hK~i8p0YZ~78m~sSb3GjDDZyd6pnOaEA8ryozUoxaCPczcn~KgnEPiDsnhDHfQoV~Zx6GTUbjDY9yY8RGdzRNMTbcieUclhrjsTgP0DqXsuTN9MU6a1w~c~7cHUuHthyK6dCxvRGTQ9moZdagsHERV3vQW-vQyZ8MhDevoNTF5ENPiqPJ0sdypwOR1V~eeQ9mXgek7pEQOIyQygMg4f0C~YMHvFXCKUvW0Tx9xqYXGw4QA4LkC4pXzw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Hannah Osborne, the city’s senior capital programs analyst, and Allison Bratcher of the finance department presented a preview of the City of Raleigh’s five-year capital improvement program and an accompanying long-term financing framework during a council work session.

Osborne told council that a capital budget is “a legal document adopted by ordinance” and that the city’s capital threshold is $25,000. She said capital funding falls into two broad types: debt financing and PAYGo (cash financing). “General obligation bonds are approved through ballot initiatives and are backed by the taxing power of the city,” she said, noting that parks, affordable housing and major transportation projects are often funded with GO bonds while Raleigh Water uses revenue bonds.

Nut graf: Staff presented a five-year request preview that is dominated by public-safety construction (largely fire stations), followed by transportation and new city facilities; finance staff also outlined a “steady‑state” financing model that would use recurring, predictable bond capacity instead of ad hoc large bond packages.

Requested capital needs and cost pressures

Osborne said the largest identified capital commitment in the FY26–FY30 requests is for fire stations, followed by transportation and new city facilities. She flagged rising delivery costs across multiple categories: HVAC replacement costs rose about 90% over the past year, bridge-repair costs increased roughly 65% over three years and certain video-camera hardware costs rose about 250%.

She explained that the city assumes 2% annual growth in the value of a penny when building the PECO (Pay‑as‑you‑go equivalent) CIP and that certain projects are excluded from the displayed request totals — namely dedicated PECO allocations for street resurfacing, parks maintenance and affordable housing and any future general‑obligation bonds that require voter approval.

Evaluation and funding decisions

Osborne described a nine‑criteria rubric used to evaluate requests; safety, urgency and regulatory compliance are given greater weight in the process. She said departments submit operating‑impact estimates for projects that carry future staffing or equipment needs so those costs can be factored into later budget years.

Long‑term financing and steady‑state scenarios

Allison Bratcher in finance discussed a steady‑state financing concept intended to create more predictable capital funding. Under one scenario modeled for council, the city has “debt capacity to issue $90,000,000 of debt every four years,” Bratcher said. She presented alternative scenarios showing higher capacity if the council opted to allocate additional property‑tax capacity (for example, simulations at an additional 1¢ or 2¢).

Bratcher said the model tracks general obligation and limited obligation bonds and is used to evaluate debt capacity, credit impacts and affordability. She noted that the model shown does not incorporate other long‑term liabilities such as OPEB or certain statutory pension obligations and that bond‑anticipation notes used in prior years have reduced current two‑thirds capacity.

Council questions and next steps

Councilors asked for more detail about the likely split within transportation/mobility between roads, sidewalks and bicycle facilities, for district‑level CIP project lists, and for clarity on operational impacts tied to new facilities (staffing and equipment). Staff said they will provide additional detail in manager briefings and in the April 7 work session, when enterprise departments (Raleigh Water, Stormwater, Solid Waste) present their operating and capital budgets.

Osborne and Bratcher said the proposed five‑year CIP and the city manager’s proposed FY26 budget will be presented to council on May 20; staff also said they will coordinate with Wake County and the school system on bond timing to avoid voter fatigue.

Ending

Staff characterized the presentation as a preview and emphasized that final capital recommendations and financing choices will be included in the city manager’s proposed budget package for council review in May.

","City capital staff presented a five-year capital improvement program (CIP) preview, explained capital budget definitions and financing options (debt vs. pay‑go), and outlined a steady‑state bond scenario that shows roughly $90 million in debt capacity every four years under current assumptions.","actionData","errors"]

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Raleigh staff say parks, water and public safety ranked highest in FY26 budget outreach; sidewalks and leaf pickup were most-cited gaps

Raleigh previews five-year CIP and steady‑state financing options; fire stations and transportation lead requests