Danville officials review first draft of 2025 budget, add firefighters and set capital priorities

Danville City officials met in a special called meeting in May 2025 to review a first draft of the fiscal-year budget and to set priorities for personnel, capital projects and agency allocations.

City Manager Coppell opened the discussion, saying staff had prepared "what I would consider a first draft of the budget" and that department heads had provided prioritized lists for capital projects. Coppell and staff presented operating revenue and expenditure estimates, personnel proposals, recommended capital spending priorities and a proposed allocation for shared and community agencies.

Why it matters: the draft sets staffing levels, near-term capital spending and the outline for any bond financing the commission would need to approve later. Commissioners gave staff direction on several items that would change the draft before the next work session.

Most important figures and staffing proposals

Staff presented general-fund operating revenue of $23,430,000 and operating expenditures shown at about $23,029,000 after proposed personnel changes. Personnel adjustments presented earlier in the process account for roughly $220,000; staff then incorporated an additional firefighter position into the baseline. After additional adjustments (including reduced overtime), Coppell said the net personnel impact to the general fund was about $226,000. The battalion chief position requested by the fire department was not funded in the baseline.

The utility fund was shown with operating revenue of $12,700,000 and operating expenses of roughly $12.8 million, producing a projected operating deficit of about $17,000; staff said that deficit would be covered by the utility fund balance and monitored through the year.

Capital priorities and parks bond discussion

Staff presented ranked capital priorities and said the recommended first-priority projects were already incorporated into the large budget spreadsheet. Highlights included a $600,000 allocation in stormwater funds for the Sub-basin F/Twin Brook Culvert project, $50,000 for museum roof/parking repairs, and a large utility fund capital program of about $6.9 million. For parks and recreation, staff included the indoor aquatics/recreation center in the capital plan and showed a conceptual project cost of about $22,000,000; Coppell said that project would be financed with a bond issuance and that the annual debt service at current rates would be in the range of roughly $1.4 million to $1.6 million per year, a sum staff said would require “additional sources of revenue” beyond the city’s current budget cushion.

Commissioners and staff discussed repair priorities at Fire Station 2 (including damaged doors) and vehicle and camera-related service fees for the police department tied to new patrol vehicles. Coppell said department heads had ranked high-priority items and staff would validate those priorities with department managers before the next draft.

Agency allocations and budget balancing

Staff proposed a combined allocation for shared agencies and community agencies that began at $409,100 in the draft; after line-item adjustments agreed during the meeting (including setting planning and zoning support at $75,000 and other changes) staff reported a revised proposed total of $381,750. Coppell described the agency-request universe as $656,000 and noted the staff proposal reflected a collective average of commissioner preferences. Coppell said the draft left a small operating shortfall (reported at about $8,242 earlier in the presentation) that staff expected to eliminate by trimming expenses before final adoption.

Personnel timing and next steps on new positions

Staff asked commissioners to prioritize between positions that had not been funded in the baseline, including the battalion chief and a code-enforcement officer requested by police. Coppell cautioned that hiring timing matters — for example, hiring midyear could reduce the first-year budget impact — and asked commissioners to indicate which positions should be prioritized for recruitment in the coming year. Commissioners generally signaled support for adding firefighter positions first while postponing some other new hires until reorganizing workloads and assessing midyear capacity.

Legal and intergovernmental items raised in discussion

Commissioners asked staff to study a potential restaurant tax to help fund parks; Coppell said Danville cannot unilaterally enact the tax under current Kentucky law without a defensible legal basis and that staff were researching the legal standard that allowed the city of Hazard to win a Supreme Court challenge. Coppell said Danville does not presently meet the same factual standard Hazard used and that additional legal analysis would be required before pursuing a restaurant-tax ordinance.

Staff also raised annexation and service issues for some commercial properties, including a recently sold building identified as the LSC building, and said staff planned to discuss annexation and service arrangements with those owners in the coming weeks.

Decisions, directions and procedural items

During the session commissioners reached working consensus on agency allocations to be reflected in the next draft and instructed staff to: - Verify and proof-test capital priority rankings with department heads, particularly for fire engine repairs and station door work; - Explore options for hiring timing (midyear hires versus July 1) to balance budget impact and operational need; - Return with revised draft budget documents reflecting agreed adjustments and deliver a draft revision at the next scheduled meeting; and - Continue legal research on the restaurant-tax question and report back.

The commission agreed to reconvene for a revision of the draft (meeting date to be confirmed) and then adjourned the special called meeting by voice vote.

Ending

Staff said they would update the spreadsheets and capital lists, confirm department priorities and circulate a revised draft for commissioner review before the next work session. The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn that passed on a voice vote.