Ukiah City holds midyear budget review; council told strategic-plan update to follow

Ukiah City leaders on Tuesday held a midyear department budget and objectives review for fiscal year 2024–25, with staff asking the City Council to treat the meeting as a kickoff for budget decisions that will be finalized before the June budget adoption.

The presentations, led by Dan Buffalo, Finance Director, and department directors, showed actuals through midyear alongside the approved full‑year budget and flagged items council may want to revisit before the final budget. Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley told council that the strategic‑plan update will be presented in one of the next two meetings and may prompt budget changes.

City staff emphasized that the midyear reports are not final decisions but a chance to identify priorities and problems. Buffalo told council that the slides show the last three years’ midyear actuals and the approved full budget for 2024–25 and cautioned that timing differences in when expenses occur can make midyear comparisons uneven. Riley said the presentations include links and supporting documents that will become active as staff finalizes them.

The city attorney’s office said legal review needs have risen and warned the council there is a chance the legal budget could be exceeded before year end. The city clerk’s office reported a large workload of public‑records requests and said it has purged about 260 record‑retention boxes so far as the city moves toward paperless records.

Other highlights noted to council included a frozen department analyst position in the city manager’s office that will remain vacant for now; the downtown paid‑parking plan remains deferred for at least another year; and staff will continue engagement on capital items and strategic‑plan changes leading up to the June budget adoption.

The council adjourned the special meeting to the regular session and scheduled a closed session to follow the regular meeting.