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Sherwood adopts first biennial budget; council members voice concern over layoffs and revenue stability
Summary
The City of Sherwood adopted its first biennial budget (Resolution 2025-052) for July 1, 2025–June 30, 2027. Councilors and staff discussed recent layoffs, reliance on variable revenues such as red-light camera income, and state pressures including PERS and unfunded mandates during the hearing; no public testimony was received.
The Sherwood City Council on June 24 adopted Resolution 2025-052, approving the city's first biennial budget for the period July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2027, and authorizing the city manager to carry out the adopted budget.
City staff said the budget committee reviewed the budget message May 22 and approved the proposed biannual budget June 5, and staff confirmed the council hearing satisfied the public hearing requirement under Oregon budget law (ORS 294.453). "On 05/22/2025, the Sherwood budget committee, they received the budget message. And then on June 5, the budget committee approved the proposed budget," staff member David said, adding that the document reflected changes discussed during budget committee meetings.
Council discussion noted that the budget committee held multiple sessions and that the adopted budget followed significant scrutiny. "This is probably 1 of the robust budget committee sessions that we had," Council President Sherry Young said, noting the committee met three times to address questions. Several councilors and one councilor identified as Tim commented on the difficulty of approving a budget while making staff layoffs and emphasized the need to identify additional stable revenue sources.
One councilor raised concern about dependence on variable revenues, saying they would "hate to think that we're just counting on red light revenue to fund our city operations." Another councilor noted outside pressures such as PERS increases, rising construction costs and state unfunded mandates that reduce local fiscal flexibility.
After closing the public hearing with no testimony, a motion to adopt Resolution 2025-052 carried on a voice vote. The record shows the council approved the biennial budget and authorized the city manager to implement it; no amendments or contingencies were recorded in the council action.
