St. Pete Beach proposes five‑workshop budget calendar and stronger finance review role

Devin Schmidt, St. Pete Beach finance director, presented a proposed FY2026 budget calendar that would replace a single lengthy retreat with five shorter workshops and a defined role for a finance budget review committee.

Schmidt told the commission the calendar and committee are intended to increase transparency and community engagement across the budget process and to produce iterative recommendations for the commission. Under the proposal, department capital requests, personnel and benefits, operating budgets and a preliminary budget book would be reviewed in stages; the finance committee would provide advisory recommendations after each workshop. Tentative and final budget hearings would still be scheduled in September as required.

Schmidt acknowledged a dates discrepancy flagged by commissioners and said staff would reconcile the published slide dates with the city’s calendar and re-upload the corrected presentation to the meeting record. The finance committee’s scope, he said, would be advisory only and would not supplant the commission’s policy role: “they can provide recommendations to the city commission on financial budget matters in accordance with the city charters,” he said.

Commissioner Mohalland praised the proposed approach as “refreshing” compared with prior practice and thanked staff and the city manager for the more phased process. Commissioners discussed scheduling conflicts (several noted July workshop dates conflict with vacation plans) and asked staff to confirm dates before finalizing the calendar.

Schmidt said staff intends to use the committee and workshops to collect more frequent public input and to return to the commission with the tentative budget and a summary of changes for final adoption later in the year.