Council adopts two-year budget covering fiscal years 2025–27; reserves and capital projects highlighted
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Summary
Hawaiian Gardens adopted Resolution No. 11-2025, a two-year operational and capital budget for fiscal years 2025–2026 and 2026–2027, maintaining public-safety spending, adding parking enforcement, and allocating funds for capital repairs and software upgrades.
The Hawaiian Gardens City Council adopted a two-year budget for fiscal years 2025–26 and 2026–27 at its June 11 meeting, approving Resolution No. 11-2025 by roll-call vote.
Finance staff presented the budget as operationally balanced and aligned to council goals including public safety, community revitalization and fiscal stability. The presentation said the city expects increased revenues in part because an agreement with the local casino is anticipated to end in November, which staff said would increase other revenue streams. Staff reported the casino accounted for a large share of current revenues (presented as roughly 61.62 percent of the city’s revenue mix in the staff slide deck) and listed other significant revenue sources such as sales tax, Measure H and vehicle license fees in lieu of property taxes.
Budget highlights included increased compensation adjustments from a classification-and-compensation study, maintained and expanded public-safety programs (SAO team, ShotSpotter, Flock cameras, intersection cameras and the Sky Knight helicopter), a new full-time parking-enforcement officer plus two part-time parking-enforcement staff, funding to resume the YAL program (a youth anti-violence/leadership grant-backed program), continued streets and sidewalk rehabilitation, facility repairs and a planned Norwalk Boulevard streetscape design. Staff also identified a generator replacement estimated at about $100,000, new finance software implementation, and vehicles for recreation and public works.
Staff said the Carson Street Beautification project finished under budget and that the city had multiple capital projects planned, including Ferguson Field improvements and renovations to C. Robert Lee (for which staff noted a $1,000,000 grant from a congressional office). The presentation addressed grant carryovers: staff said they expected about $364,000 carried forward for youth-program grant funding and that the city will pursue future grant rounds.
Council members asked questions about program staffing, grant timelines and the prudence of including casino-related revenue projections; staff said consultants are reviewing historical data and that the budget can be revised if council takes a different course in the coming months. The council approved the resolution by roll call (Roa: yes; Vargas: yes; Mayor Pro Tem del Rio: yes; Mayor De Pala: yes). Council Member Farfan had been excused.
Staff and council discussed unfunded liabilities and retiree medical funding: the budget includes an annual $300,000 allocation toward medical liabilities, while staff said the city has not set aside a separate reserve specifically for pension unfunded liabilities. Council directed staff to continue monitoring and to consider reserve strategies in future budget work.
