The City Commission of the City of Opelika on July 23 preliminarily approved the city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025–26 and ordered staff to return with a revised document reflecting changes the commission made to special-event allocations.

The approval, required by the state/local agreement with the governor’s office, came after a two-hour discussion about events spending and staff costs. Commissioners voted 5–0 to pass the resolution directing the manager to forward the preliminary budget to the governor and to give the budget administrator authority to recalculate totals based on the commission’s agreed changes.

Why it matters: The vote meets a state deadline while leaving time for the commission to refine event spending before final adoption. Commissioners said they wanted tighter controls on event-related overtime and to seek sponsorships and volunteer support to reduce the city’s outlay.

Most important facts
- The commission approved the proposed budget and forwarded it as the city’s preliminary submission to the governor, 5–0. The manager will provide the commission the revised version before it is sent.
- Staff documented third-party event costs of about $406,000 and additional staff expenses of about $25,000 in regular time plus $26,600 in overtime tied to events. Commissioners singled out the Arabian Nights/City Birthday line item at $280,000 for special scrutiny because it is the largest single event allocation.
- During the meeting the commission reduced or removed funding for selected initiatives (examples: several small community event lines were zeroed out or cut), cut the book-bag entertainment allocation in favor of seeking donations, and moved some programming funds to existing social-services programming where appropriate.
- The commission approved on the record a separate amendment giving the budget manager authority to calculate the final revised totals consistent with the commission’s direction; that amendment passed 5–0.

What commissioners said and asked
- Vice Mayor Joseph L. Kelly urged staff to use reserve police officers and command-level personnel first, and to schedule events during regular work hours when possible to avoid overtime. Kelly also pressed for a narrower scope for staff participation at events and recommended more co-sponsors to share costs.
- Budget administrator Bob Addison presented a package that separated third-party event costs and staff costs and showed line-by-line amounts for city events, commission initiatives and national- and holiday-recognized events.
- Commissioners asked staff to pursue sponsorships, require more volunteer support, and work event planning to reduce overtime exposure.

Context and next steps
- The commission’s vote meets the state deadline for a preliminary budget submission. City staff will update the resolution to reflect the commission’s edits and place any identified savings into contingency until the commission finalizes the budget in September public hearings.
- Commissioners said they expect future event planning to require earlier scheduling and clearer direction on staffing so overtime can be minimized. Staff will return with updated numbers for the commission before the document is filed with the governor.

Ending
- The amended preliminary budget remains subject to the commission’s two required public hearings later this summer; the commission retained final decision authority on the budget and event spending.