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Council hears FY2025–26 budget changes; agrees to realign revenues, pursue salary survey and increase fireworks funding
Summary
At a public hearing on the FY2025–26 budget, staff presented revenue adjustments and several budget additions. The council approved realigning revenues to cover meter projects, agreed to commission a salary survey, and agreed to add funding for fireworks; debate continued over Thunderbird Gardens maintenance and some community grants.
City finance staff presented the Cedar City Council with proposed adjustments to the FY2025–26 budget at a June 4 public hearing, and councilors agreed to several changes while tabling other requests for later discussion.
Staff told the council they had revised revenue projections to better match recent experience and identified a $189,000 reallocation to cover operational and capital needs. As part of that realignment, the council instructed staff to move $473,000 from one capital reserve into the Neptune meter project to ensure meter purchases can proceed; staff said the shift replaces an earlier plan to use impact fee funds that cannot be spent on existing infrastructure.
Other items presented and advanced by the council included funding for an additional staff accountant and workstations (computers and related equipment), support for a sewer‑lab technician transition and a lab technician salary adjustment, and a recommendation to commission an updated salary survey. Councilors discussed the survey’s purpose and scope; they agreed it should be used to evaluate positions relative to peer municipal employers and to inform a plan of action if significant gaps appear.
Council members also agreed to increase the city’s fireworks budget by $4,500 to make the line item $25,000 in preparation for the city’s 250th‑anniversary planning. Councilors authorized adding those dollars to the proposed budget and asked staff to proceed with ordering to avoid expected price increases.
Staff raised a separate request to fund routine maintenance and janitorial service at Thunderbird Gardens (a BLM‑origin trailhead and restroom the city took responsibility for after BLM funding ended), estimating roughly $33,000 per year to cover road maintenance, restroom cleaning and trash pickup. Council debate reflected staff concerns that the site had been a joint project built in partnership with other organizations and that partners should resume maintenance; no council consensus was reached to add Thunderbird Gardens funding to the budget at this meeting.
Several community grants and small program requests were discussed; councilors recalled the city’s long‑standing practice of directing certain wrap‑tax and social‑service grants primarily to organizations that help manage public safety follow‑ups and victim services. Councilors agreed to proceed with a set of staff‑recommended allocations and to revisit any items that require additional documentation or further public outreach.
Staff will return a final balanced budget for adoption at the next council meeting; councilors asked staff to document the specific reallocations and to report back with the salary‑survey scope and the meter procurement schedule.
