City Manager Sanders told the council that public safety remains a principal budget driver and outlined several program and staffing items that will be evaluated as the FY2027 budget is developed.

Sanders said the Anchor pilot, a high-performing mental-health intervention, has been internalized and staff are considering expanding clinician hours and scope; he said an “Anchor 2” update will include a budget request. On the Flock pilot program, Sanders said the pilot ends at the end of the month and the council will have a check-in to decide whether to continue it; he added that any continuation would not necessarily require a new city budget ask because the chief has identified ways to pay for it.

On school safety, Sanders said an initial recommendation discussed by a workgroup called for four school resource officers, costing roughly $900,000. He said there is now talk of cutting the request to two officers and that the chief believes those two could be operationalized without an additional budget ask; a formal request would require a submission from the superintendent.

Sanders also told councilors the city is currently not providing a sworn drug-court officer and that the clerk of circuit court has raised this as an ongoing concern. He flagged expected contract and software cost increases across public safety divisions and noted the fire department is managing overtime pressures, gear and single-role EMS integration.

John O'Grady, the city's emergency management coordinator, presented his near-term work plan and said he will complete reviews of the city’s continuity plan and the emergency operations plan, clarify staff roles under the National Incident Management System and publish a training schedule by year end. O'Grady said he plans an emergency operations center exercise in late spring 2027 and told councilors the city has not run comprehensive EOC testing in years.

Sanders said he has previously directed some surplus funding toward emergency-management needs to buy time for O'Grady to prioritize requests and reduce the chance of large new asks in the FY2027 budget, but acknowledged exercises and equipment carry costs that may still require future requests.

No formal budget decisions were taken during the briefing; Sanders and department leaders will return with formal budget requests and any school-board submissions for council consideration during the scheduled March–April budget process.