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Dubuque City Council reviews City Manager—s Office budget; sustainability coordinator recommended as nonrecurring
Summary
At a special April 2 budget session, City Manager—s Office staff presented the office—s FY2026 budget and priorities, including one recommended nonrecurring extension for the climate action coordinator and an update on major federal and state grant efforts.
The Dubuque City Council held a public hearing April 2 on the City Manager—s Office proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and heard staff outline administrative priorities, workforce initiatives and sustainability work. Corey Burbach, assistant city manager, told the council the office—s recommended budget supports grant work, workforce development and emergency preparedness functions.
The presentation said the City Manager—s Office secured 22 grants in 24 months totaling $128,000,000 and is actively contracting for several major awards. Burbach said those awards are not guaranteed until the city has signed contracts: "we are not guaranteeing a project until we have a contract in hand." He and other staff repeatedly cautioned that federal and state staffing transitions have delayed final funding agreements for several grants the city expects.
Why it matters: the City Manager—s Office coordinates federal and state funding and implements council priorities. The office—s grants and partnership work support large capital projects and aim to limit direct impacts on property taxes, officials said.
Budget highlights and personnel changes: the office presented a recommended improvement package that restructures positions to meet shifting needs while keeping a net $0 property tax impact for that package. The package would convert a 0.75 FTE director of strategic partnerships to a full FTE and eliminate an ICMA fellow position, combining that work with an existing grant analyst position. The presentation said the office's net operating property tax support is about $512,000, an amount that the staff equated to $6.76 for the average homeowner.
Sustainability: Gina Bell, director of sustainability, summarized departmental priorities and asked the council to extend the climate action coordinator another year as a nonrecurring package. Bell and City Manager Mike Van Milligan said the coordinator—s position has produced data and program work, including greenhouse gas accounting and the Youth Climate Action Fund. Bell said the city is measuring progress toward the climate action plan—s 50% emissions reduction goal and reported a 34% reduction as of 2022. She told the council that 2024 was "the hottest year ever on record" and said the office will keep focusing on energy efficiency in buildings and tree canopy expansion.
Council discussion and next steps: council members asked for more detail on grant timelines and on how the office tracks resident service requests. Burbach acknowledged a short-term reporting skew caused by a new citizen response management system: many simple, fast-response requests were processed entirely by department-specific software and so no longer appeared in the CRM—s dataset, leaving the CRM with the longer, more complex service requests. Staff said the new CRM and updated workflows should improve metrics next year.
Public input and formal action: no members of the public spoke on the City Manager—s Office budget during the hearing; written input from the Resilient Community Advisory Commission was included in the agenda packet. The city manager recommended the sustainability coordinator be funded for one more year as a nonrecurring position pending future council decisions.
Ending note: staff said they will return with more detailed performance data as the new CRM and other tools settle into regular use and as federal grant templates are finalized.
