City departments brief council on FY26 proposed budgets; auditor seeks one permanent FTE, IT adds cybersecurity staff and housing highlights shelter expansion

Directors across city departments presented overviews of proposed fiscal year 2025–26 operating and capital budgets and flagged programmatic changes council should note during the budget reconciliation process.

Convention & Visitors Bureau: Nancy Hellman, director, said the CVB has a budget of just over $40 million and about 16 full‑time employees. She said the agency’s funding derives from the general fund and two dedicated tourism streams: the Tourism Advertising Program (TAP) fund and the Tourism Investment Program (TIP) fund. Hellman said the mayor’s advertising advisory committee is planning an additional domestic marketing campaign and that Atlantic Park onboarding and entertainment programming are coming online; she noted a general‑fund allocation increase for police presence at convention center events and a net reduction of 3.72 FTEs funded by the general fund.

Economic development and tourism CIP: Emily Archer, deputy director for economic development, summarized a portfolio of 33 projects totaling about $553.26 million appropriated to date, and said roughly 63 percent of that pipeline is funded by the TIP fund (a dedicated tax on restaurants, hotels, amusements and cigarettes). She noted CIP highlights including Atlantic Park appropriations and Pembroke Square public parking (to be repaid from redevelopment tax increment) and said some TIP revenues have declined (notably cigarette tax receipts) which affects future project funding.

City auditor: Lyndon Ramirez presented the auditor’s office budget (eight FTEs, roughly $1.0 million) and asked council to fund one permanent audit investigative assistant FTE to replace contracted manpower; he said the net increase would be roughly $31,000 compared with current contracted costs. Ramirez cited recent recoveries and credits identified by audit work (examples cited in the briefing included recoveries and credits totaling several hundred thousand dollars across multiple audits) and argued a permanent position would improve continuity and return on investment.

Information Technology: Peter Wallace (IT) described an operating budget and an IT CIP that emphasize life‑cycle replacement, cybersecurity and a next‑generation network (NGN) expansion. He said the department budget is approximately $57 million and that the department is adding two staff for cybersecurity monitoring to strengthen 24/7 monitoring; the IT CIP also includes projects for enterprise AV lifecycle, voting equipment replacement and station‑alerting upgrades. Andrew Jenkins summarized IT CIP projects and noted funds for core upgrades, NGN fiber expansion to off‑campus sites, and planned redundant paths to reduce outages.

Non‑departmental and grants: Katie James (deputy director of budget) summarized the non‑departmental section (about $51 million) that includes regional grants, the Community Organization Grants (COG) program (funding $750,000 in FY26), benefits administration and other citywide obligations. James noted the elderly and disabled tax‑relief program is estimated to grow by $1.1 million in FY26 and that vehicle replacement funding was increased to address post‑pandemic replacement backlogs.

Housing and Neighborhood Preservation: Ruthie Hill said the department manages roughly 2,000 Housing Choice Vouchers and that rental assistance and homeless services constitute the majority of the department’s federal funding (about 88 percent overall). Hill reported the city had added 32 shelter beds last year; since that expansion the department reported serving 378 unique individuals and operating a day‑services/transitions program that connected hundreds of unsheltered people with shelter, IDs and housing referrals. Hill requested two converted contractual positions (federally funded) and said the department anticipates flat federal allocations but will adjust if HUD funding levels change.

Real estate assessor: Connie Ham reviewed the assessor’s office (35 employees; a little over $4.3 million) and said the office is lean, currently carrying two vacancies in its commercial appraisal group that have been difficult to recruit for at market rates. She noted the department’s software modernization project (moving off a 2008 system) and described the board‑of‑equalization process for property owners seeking a review.

Agriculture: David Trimmer summarized a roughly $9‑million‑scale budget for agriculture and related programs, including the agricultural reserve program (ARP), farmers’ market activity and volunteer programs such as 4‑H and Master Gardeners. He said the department contributes to off‑road ditch and park CIP work and that the ARP has more than 1,200 acres in process with a goal to close an additional 300 acres in the next fiscal year.

Why this matters: Several departments requested modest staffing additions or conversion of contractual labor to FTEs, highlighted required life‑cycle or maintenance increases (IT, convention center fees, vehicle replacement) and signaled tightness in dedicated revenue streams (TIP fund declines tied to cigarette tax receipts). The auditor specifically tied a $31,000 permanent‑hire request to demonstrated recoveries from audit work.

What’s next: Council and staff will incorporate these departmental requests as they finalize the FY26 reconciliation letter and vote on the budget in the coming weeks.