Lawrence City Council presented with mayor’s compromise budget; $99,000 cut to mayor’s office remains disputed

A staff member told the Lawrence City Council that the mayor has agreed to most of the cuts in a proposed compromise budget but has not agreed to a $99,000 cut from the mayor’s office. "There were also 3 cuts that were proposed. There was a cut of $30,000 to the advertising budget. There was the cut of the $30,000 from the emergency management position. Now all of those are agreed to by the mayor. The mayor is presenting that," the staff member said.

The staff member said the mayor did not accept a separate $99,000 reduction affecting the mayor’s personal line item and that, if the council votes to approve the compromise as presented, the budget would pass. "What the mayor is not agreeing to in his compromised budget is the $99,000 cut from his office. That is the 1 that he is objecting to," the staff member said. The same staff member summarized the potential procedural outcome: if the council votes no, "the city attorney won't gonna have to rule on whether the amendment ... will be considered as a fiscal year 2026 new budget and allow the council to continue with the discussion."

Council members and staff discussed several line-item transfers the staff member described as part of the compromise: a transfer of $150,000 from the fire department to a personnel line item (identified in the meeting as "51110"), and a $175,000 transfer from police personnel to a training account described as a purchase-of-services line (identified as "5300" in the meeting). The staff member also confirmed the council-approved $30,000 cut to the city’s advertising budget and a $30,000 cut to an emergency-management position that the mayor has agreed to.

The staff member provided a tentative total for the proposed budget but the figure reported in the meeting transcript was garbled and not clearly stated. The staff member said that if the council votes to approve the presented package, "that will be the proposed ... budget that is gonna be approved." If the council rejects it, the city attorney may be asked to rule on how the amendment should be treated and whether the council may continue amending the fiscal 2026 budget.

The presentation came during a council budget discussion; no formal motion, mover, seconder or vote tally was recorded in the transcript excerpt provided. The council’s next formal action — a recorded vote to approve or reject the compromise package — was described as the immediate next step, and a city attorney ruling was presented as the fallback if the council does not approve the package.