Board of Public Service presents FY26 budget; warns fleet, facilities and capital programs face tight funding

Board of Public Service President Rich Bradley on May 14 told the Budget and Public Employees Committee that the department’s FY26 operating request holds many divisions flat but that budget allocations fall short in several areas, including fleet parts and outside contract services, utilities and some capital-related line items.

Bradley told the committee the department requested $3,581,765 for the president’s office and received about $3,000,092, and that the department’s total budget request across divisions came to roughly $43.2 million in the materials he presented.

The request and discussion centered on five divisions: Soldiers Memorial (Division 930), Special Events (914), the president’s office, Facilities Management (903) and Equipment Services (fleet, 910). Bradley introduced division heads and repeatedly emphasized that most changes in the submitted budget are in personnel accounts while many operating lines were held flat.

“The Soldiers Memorial is the military museum, across Market Street,” said Dr. Linnea Magnusson, superintendent of Soldiers Memorial, as Bradley introduced the division. Magnusson told the committee the FY26 request of about $157,938 was effectively funded at $160,000 and that non-personnel accounts remain unchanged from last year.

Travis Houser, special events program executive, described the department’s new online permitting platform, “1 Stop Gov,” built on Salesforce and integrated into the City’s Cityworks system. Houser said 1 Stop Gov simplifies event applications, allows credit-card payments and should improve reporting once internal workflows are refined: “...we really improved the applicant’s process.” He told the committee that the pilot was funded outside the Office of Special Events budget and that budgeting for the platform will be…