Leon Valley city councilors on Tuesday reviewed the city manager’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget and directed staff to restore targeted maintenance and public‑safety spending while assigning some reserve funds for near‑term capital needs.

The council’s discussion centered on how to apply a modest $63,007 surplus in the operating budget and what to do with the city’s roughly $5.7 million in reserves. City Manager Crystal Caldera presented a budget she said has a $63,766 surplus and proposed several options, including restoring park and fire maintenance, funding a mass‑notification system and adding items to the reserve.

Nut graf: Councilors agreed to a compromise that restores some cuts while preserving most of the reserve: add a mass‑notification (geofencing) system, return $30,000 to the fire maintenance line, allocate additional park maintenance money, and place any remaining funds into the general reserve. They also instructed staff to assign $200,000 toward an ambulance and $200,000 toward the Forest Oaks pool grant match as multi‑year, earmarked reserve items.

Most urgent decisions and direction came early in the review. Caldera said the budget includes a proposed property tax rate 0.51504 and a small operating surplus if council adopts changes. After discussion, councilors expressed consistent support for adding the mass‑notification system so the city can alert residents in emergencies, and for restoring funding to fire maintenance because equipment failures and ambulance repairs were described as recurring, near‑term needs.

Councilor Campos proposed the restoration plan that carried wide support: the council will add the $6,500 ongoing cost for mass notification, restore $30,000 for fire repairs, return part of the park maintenance cut (the staff said the original line cut was $12,000), and put remaining surplus into the reserve. Caldera said she would add those line items and noted the American Legion in‑kind grant would be added separately (the grant award is discussed in a different agenda item).

On longer‑term capital, Caldera recommended assigning portions of the $5.7 million reserve to future projects rather than leaving the funds unassigned. Councilors agreed to earmark $200,000 toward the Forest Oaks pool grant match and $200,000 toward an ambulance procurement so the city can place orders in time; Caldera said ambulances and some fire safety apparatus take multiple years to arrive. She cautioned that aggressive use of the reserve could reduce flexibility for unplanned emergencies.

July 4 event: councilors debated whether to fund a traditional July 4 celebration for the city’s 250th anniversary. Caldera said a full event would cost on the order of the city’s current annual special‑events levels (staff estimated roughly $180,000 from the economic development reserve for a full festival plus fireworks). After public comment and council discussion that noted fiscal constraints and competing infrastructure needs, the council declined to fund a full July 4 program from operating or economic‑development reserves for next year.

Process and next steps: Caldera said formal budget adoption and the tax‑rate hearing remain scheduled for the Sept. 2 meeting. The council’s direction was to revise the budget per the items above and return a final draft for a public hearing and vote.

Ending: The council’s choices keep a modest surplus in place while beginning to assign reserve funds to multi‑year needs (ambulance, pool match) and restoring a handful of maintenance and public‑safety items the council said it prefers not to defer.