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Planning department requests modest increase, flags street-light accounting and blight/demo funding needs
Summary
Interim planning director Vaughn Essen told city council the department seeks a roughly 15% increase for matching grants, urged an energy audit after discovering street-light charges in planning’s account, and said the city needs more demolition funding even as code-enforcement staffing has increased.
Vaughn Essen, interim director of Planning and Development, told the Jackson City Council that the department’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget reflects a roughly 15% increase intended mainly to provide matching funds for grants, particularly for JTRAN and site-development work to grow the Northwest Industrial Park. Essen also raised a separate accounting issue: a sizable street-light expense line appears under Planning’s budget and should be audited.
Essen said Planning has 97 positions (including one part-time) with 11 vacancies and that the requested increase is primarily to match external grants such as those pursued by JTRAN. He proposed investing in site-development grant matches to support…
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