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City legal and finance offices outline tight 2026 budgets; legal fees may require mid‑year modification
Summary
City Attorney reported two vacant assistant city attorney positions and warned legal fees have already exceeded modified 2025 appropriations; Finance highlighted Workday automation gains and election cost variability
City Attorney Jacobson and Finance staff briefed the finance committee Sept. 30 on modest 2026 budgets for the legal and finance/customer service functions and on operational adjustments and risks.
City Attorney Jacobson said the legal office proposed filling one of two previously vacated assistant city attorney positions and that, while personnel savings were expected, unanticipated litigation and outside counsel costs have outpaced the 2025 modified legal appropriation. Jacobson said contingency and legal fee planning will likely require another budget modification in October to pay for ongoing invoices; he noted legal fees are inherently difficult to predict and that insurance‑assigned counsel sometimes route matters to external firms and specialty counsel.
Finance/Customer Service staff described process improvements they have implemented since Workday went live, including bank reconciliation automation, improved receivables integrations, and automated delinquency and stale‑check handling, which they said reduced manual workload. Staff cautioned that election costs swing widely by year and that the 2026 election budget is higher than 2025 because of the governor’s race and other scheduled elections.
Both offices said they trimmed operating lines where possible and would return with any requests for contingency or mid‑year adjustments if outside legal bills or other extraordinary expenses materialize.
