Human Resources Director Marquise Vasquez briefed the committee on Oct. 16 on HR items in the 2026 executive budget, including benefits enrollment, workforce development and a contingency for labor relations work.

Vasquez said HR completed an employee engagement survey this year with roughly “50 some percent” response and plans to work with department heads on action plans, targeting completion by the second quarter of 2026. She described a new onboarding tool (week/30/90-day) and a Leadership Academy aimed at supervisors and managers: “This is for newly hired or newly promoted individuals to really teach them the core responsibilities of being a supervisor.”

Vasquez noted an operational change in benefits: the city is changing medical carriers from UMR to Sentivo and “we are required to actively enroll in new benefits.” She said the department aims for full participation in open enrollment so employees do not lose coverage.

On operating costs, Vasquez said HR’s professional-services line shows a sharp jump in 2025 because the city paid outside counsel for police and fire contract negotiations and arbitration. Committee members and staff discussed a $100,000 line in the labor-relations code. Finance staff said the $28,500 line in the HR operating account covers training for the Leadership Academy, while the $100,000 in labor relations was budgeted to cover possible outside counsel for unresolved contract negotiations.

City Administrator Tony Brown later confirmed the $100,000 contingency is tied to ongoing police union negotiations and said arbitration can be expensive; he cited a recent arbitration that cost roughly $35,000 even though the city prevailed. Brown said, “if we do get to a point where we go to arbitration, we wanted to set aside a sufficient amount of funding to be able to deal with that,” and that unused funds would revert to the general fund.