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Peachtree City council sets earlier budget work session, presses for clearer flags on big-ticket additions
Summary
City manager and council agreed to start the fiscal 2026 budget process earlier, adding an April work session to set broad goals and ask staff for flagged changes; council members pressed for clearer identification of large new requests, a separate maintenance “slice” of the budget and proposals for a min–max reserve policy.
Peachtree City agreed to kick off fiscal 2026 budget planning with a new April work session to give council earlier input on high-level goals and to ask staff to flag large new or non‑inflationary requests.
The council and City Manager Justin said the earlier session is intended to define council priorities — revenue expectations, priority projects and major operating choices — before departments build line‑item budgets. Staff will return in June with the formal proposed budget at the usual cadence.
Why it matters: Council members said they were blindsided last year by late additions and retreat‑driven projects that added about $2.4 million to the adopted budget without separate votes on each large item. Council members asked staff to provide a clearer, reviewer‑friendly budget binder (colored highlights, an executive breakout of items that increased well above inflation, and a one‑page maintenance table for all city assets) so elected officials and the public can see what changed and why.
Council direction and staff role: The city manager recommended a structured approach: an April workshop to capture council’s overarching priorities, followed by the usual department budget development and June presentations. Council members asked staff to: - provide a one‑page or small set of pages that isolate maintenance spending across departments (buildings, fleet, IT pockets) so elected officials can see maintenance obligations at a glance; - “tag and flag” any large new department requests early in the process (and include vendor price tags or estimates) so council can evaluate them separately rather than seeing them only in the final binder; and - circulate draft budget materials early enough to allow meaningful review before public hearings.
Reserve policy discussion: Multiple council members asked staff to return with options for formalizing a reserve (fund‑balance) policy as a min–max range rather than a single minimum. Staff will circulate background material (including a Government Finance Officers Association/GFOA example the city manager will send) and a short memo summarizing the tradeoffs; councilmembers suggested preliminary goal ranges between roughly 30–60% of general‑fund operating expenditures, and asked for a short education piece before determining a specific target.
Timing and next steps: Staff will place an April budget work session on the schedule (either during a regular work session or as a special called session) and will email council a first set of budget navigation materials and the proposed timeline. The city manager will begin providing tagged budget highlights to the council in the weeks before the April session.
