Council reviews proposed budget; members flag pump stations, sheriff equipment and staffing requests

City Council received a staff presentation on the proposed budget that focused on capital improvement items and personnel requests. Dr. Mankert told the council the agenda covered two budget items in tonight’s review: the capital improvement program and personnel requests.

The presentation identified the city’s Office 365 costs in the proposed budget and called attention to public-safety equipment needs in the sheriff’s office, including body-worn camera replacements and radio communications equipment. Councilors discussed what the transcript described as a roughly $100,000 request for radio and camera equipment and a separate $30,000 radio communications line that “is already in the budget,” per the discussion. Dr. Mankert said the larger radio/camera request was a priority because prior “hand‑me‑downs” were no longer working.

Councilors pressed staff for more detail on the city’s pump stations. One council member said they believed the city has 19 pump stations but acknowledged they could be mistaken; the council asked staff to supply an itemized, inflation‑adjusted list of pump stations and associated costs and to confirm where each work item appears in the proposed budget. Staff agreed to provide the pump‑station list and said a related presentation from the utility contractor (HWR) is scheduled for the next Tuesday meeting.

Councilors discussed several stormwater projects shown as rollovers in the budget books. The Heritage Avenue drainage project was listed with $214,000; councilors described that as design or rollover dollars rather than the total project cost. The Wagner Road stormline project also appeared as funded/rolled over; staff said they would provide a status update on those projects. Council members described these projects as preventive maintenance that could reduce larger future costs.

On personnel, staff presented new‑position requests totaling $1,700,000. Dr. Mankert said some recommended positions were already incorporated in the balanced budget, including three firefighter positions offset by other staffing changes. He told the council the new commonwealth attorney position and others were being proposed and, in some cases, would be offset by savings such as reduced outside counsel costs. Councilors asked that the personnel requests be reviewed and that staff clarify which requests are true new additions versus reallocations or vacancies to be filled.

Councilors also noted a proposed $500,000 transfer to the rainy day fund shown in the budget materials and asked staff to look for potential savings while preserving that set‑aside. Members asked for more detail on IT needs raised in the materials; staff said certain IT upgrades are time‑sensitive (for example, email services noted as at risk by October). Councilor discussion included a request to create a publicly accessible dashboard on the city website showing council‑approved capital projects, budgets, expenditures and status updates so the public and rating agencies can track progress.

Staff agreed to provide the requested follow‑ups — a pump‑station cost breakdown, project status updates for Heritage Avenue and Wagner Road, clarification of personnel offsets, and proposals for a capital‑projects dashboard — in subsequent budget meetings.