Copperas Cove council reviews proposed $25.4 million FY2025–26 budget; water, sewer rate increases and website cost flagged

Copperas Cove officials presented the city manager—s proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget at a special workshop June 24, outlining a proposed general-fund expenditure level of $25,400,000, projected general-fund revenues of $24,600,000 and an ending general-fund balance of about $11,500,000.

The budget presentation, led by budget presenter Missus Beckman and introduced by Ryan Havela, City Manager, detailed department-level changes across public safety, administration, community services, public works and utilities, and noted that total expenditures across all funds exceed revenues by approximately $895,000. "The budget is also published in the city's website for those that are interested to go in there and read through it," Missus Beckman said during the presentation.

Why it matters: The council must decide how to close the gap between revenues and expenditures after certified property values are received by July 25, and staff singled out several items not included in the proposed budget that would require council direction before adoption: (1) a hosted website with an AI chatbot and related hosting estimated at $5,900 a year, (2) an estimated $100,000 annual contractual position to lead fundraising for Rodey Park, and (3) a proposed $150,000 match to assist the historical society—s Allen House grant applications.

Key figures and structure

- General fund: proposed revenues $24,600,000; proposed expenditures $25,400,000; ending fund balance $11,500,000 (about $5.1 million above the stated ideal balance). Staff noted the budget is not structurally balanced and presented four options to close the gap, including holding a tax-rate election, adopting the voter-approval tax rate, using fund balance or excluding market/step grade pay adjustments.

- Water and sewer fund: proposed revenues $22,300,000; expenditures $23,000,000; ending fund balance about $8,400,000. The proposed budget includes rate increases discussed at the previous council meeting: the residential water volumetric rate from $5.21 to $6.06 and the sewer volumetric rate from $5.15 to $5.30.

- Solid waste: proposed residential fee increase from $25.25 to $27.78 and commercial from $52.61 to $57.87.

Department highlights and notable requests

- Public safety: overall public safety expenditures remain the largest share of the general fund with modest increases tied to step adjustments for police and fire. Police services proposed budget about $6,700,000; fire operations proposed about $5,700,000. New or one-time requests included an ambulance purchase in the current year budget (not repeated in the proposed) and small equipment requests in fire operations (example amounts: AED pass $532; portable gas detectors $3,550).

- Administration and citywide items: staff included a citywide HVAC maintenance agreement allocated across departments (examples: City Council portion $1,253; City Manager $716). The city attorney budget shows an increase attributed to open-records and legal support.

- Information technology and website: Scott Mullican, IT director, described a needed migration to Microsoft 365 because the city—s current Microsoft services are at end of life and require a subscription-based move. "Our Microsoft Office is at end of life," Mullican said, adding that migration brings cloud capabilities and security improvements. He also described planned network penetration testing to harden defenses and a proposed website with a built-in multilingual AI chatbot that can search site content and documents (and pull ordinances from Municode). The hosted website/chatbot subscription was not included in the proposed budget; staff estimated $5,900 per year and asked the council whether to add it as a change to the proposed budget.

- Parks and Rodey Park: Jeff Stoddard (Parks staff) described the stalled Rodey Park project and relayed a consultant—s recommendation to hire a contractual employee to lead fundraising and coordination. Staff estimated an annual contract cost of about $100,000; that cost was not in the proposed budget but would be presented as a change if the council directs staff to proceed.

- Cemetery: Parks staff proposed a new cemetery software module budgeted at $30,000 to allow online grave-locator functionality and optional on-site kiosks; the current software (encode 9) lacks a migration path for a cemetery module.

- Development, public works and utilities: several capital line items that were present in the current-year budget do not recur in the proposed budget (for example, generators and certain equipment in water and wastewater), contributing to year-to-year decreases in some departmental budgets. New small requests include $15,500 for an SCADA cellular upgrade and $3,500 for billing-furniture for utility billing.

Process, timing and next steps

Staff reminded the council that the city filed the proposed budget with the city secretary as required by state law and posted it online. Council will receive certified property values by July 25; staff said that once certified values arrive the council will choose among options to close the general-fund gap. Key upcoming dates provided by staff: a special council meeting on the budget Thursday at 5 p.m. for fee discussions and presentations by non-city organizations; July 31 tax-rate discussion and public hearing on the proposed budget; Aug. 5 record vote to propose a tax rate and set a public hearing on a tax increase; Aug. 19 public hearing and adoption of the budget, tax rate, long-range plans and fee schedule.

Discussion vs. decision

The workshop was presentation and discussion only; staff listed three items for future council direction but took no formal votes at the June 24 meeting. Councilmembers asked clarifying questions during the presentation (for example about the scope of cemetery software and where card-processing fees appear in the budget). Ryan Havela, City Manager, and Missus Beckman confirmed staff will present itemized proposed changes to the budget at a future meeting when council gives direction.

Ending

Staff closed the presentation noting the three outstanding items for council direction (website/IT costs, Rodey Park fundraising coordinator, and the Allen House match) and confirmed follow-up meetings this week and into August. "If council has any questions or direction, we are here to take that," Ryan Havela said at the conclusion of the workshop.