City Manager Dale Freeman presented the proposed budget to the City Commission and said, “this is now your budget,” noting it assumes maintaining the same millage rate of 5.45 mills. Commissioners reviewed revenues and expenditures, discussed targeted hires and one-time capital items, and asked staff to return with more precise numbers at an August budget workshop.

The budget document shown to commissioners includes a roughly $60,000 unallocated contingency, salary lines with a 3% built-in merit factor for planning purposes, and proposed hires distributed across multiple funds. The commission discussed penciling in $60,000 to provide medical benefits for elected officials as a placeholder while staff refines the cost.

City Manager Freeman explained the 3% planning assumption: the city budgets merit pay as an aggregate figure that blends cost-of-living and merit adjustments and that exact awards will depend on evaluations. Freeman also told the commission that some vacancies and new positions are budgeted in a contingency reserve so funds are moved into department budgets only when hires are made.

Commissioners pressed staff for more specifics before final adoption. Several members said public-facing service needs — including roads, stormwater and right-of-way cleanup — should guide which new positions are funded, and asked staff to return with options showing tradeoffs. The commission agreed to continue detailed line-item discussion at the next scheduled budget meeting and to refine numbers in advance of the August 28 fee-and-rate hearing.

Less-critical capital items and technical accounting changes were also discussed; for example, some improvements were moved into capital funds rather than operating lines to avoid double-counting in the enterprise funds’ year-end balance sheet. Freeman said staff will provide a capital-project rollup and separate enterprise capital report for future meetings.