Committee recommends civil city 2026 budget after briefings on COLA, sanitation subsidy and audit timing

Jessica McClellan, city controller, presented Appropriation Ordinance 2025-11, the civil city budget for 2026 and a companion packet describing changes since the budget hearings.

Why it matters: the ordinance sets the city’s operating plan for 2026, includes pay adjustments for employees, and flags budget items that could lead to additional appropriations or policy decisions during the year, such as added general-fund support for sanitation services and the city’s audit schedule.

McClellan said the advertised total for the civil city budget in the packet is $163,152,557 and that the most substantial change since the hearings was adding 0.7 percentage points to the COLA for nonunion regular appointed employees, bringing that COLA to 2.7%. She said police and fire budgets already included a 3% increase and that the city has agreed to a 5% increase for AFSCME members; AFSCME negotiations were described as ongoing.

Council…