Fort Thomas council holds first reading of 2025–26 budget amid public calls for audit and greater transparency

Mayor Eric Cost presented the city's proposed fiscal 2025'26 budget at the Fort Thomas City Council meeting and the council conducted a first reading of the ordinance adopting the budget while members and residents pressed for clearer audit publication and more timely public posting of budget materials.

The budget message, read by Cost, projects general-fund operating revenues of $16,543,773 and operating expenditures of $16,530,798 and says the city has budgeted $8,146,227 in capital projects "which will be funded by our reserve fund balance." Cost added the city has spent over $10 million from reserves in the past two years on Tower Park Playground and the Midway Streetscape and signaled council will discuss whether to seek a tax increase in coming months.

The exchange followed extended public comments from residents who said the city's audit and budget documents are not consistently published online. Jim Ferris, a resident, cited text he found in the American Legal Publishing Code Library about "chapter 33, financing revenue for Fort Thomas" and said: "no discussion of any future allocation of funds should even take place until a deep, honest, and accurate audit is conducted by Allison Ball, the state attorney for the state of Kentucky, or a member of her staff." Ferris and other speakers said the most recent audit available on the city website covered the year ending June 30, 2023, and asked why the later audits were not posted.

Resident Tiffany Bieber told the council: "please start being more transparent," saying late posting of agenda packets and budget materials limits residents' ability to review proposed spending and ask informed questions. Council members acknowledged the concern and described internal steps they said already occur: the budget is prepared by staff and reviewed at length by the finance committee, and the council said it intentionally built extra review time into the schedule this year.

Council members and staff agreed to additional finance follow-up. Council members described the budget review process as collaborative and said the city would schedule finance-committee meetings this summer to examine multi-year expenditure trends, payroll growth and revenue forecasts and to give residents more opportunities to comment before the second reading. Councilmembers also said they would investigate whether recent completed audits were published to the website and, if not, to ensure publication.

On the council agenda, the body read three budget-related ordinances: an amendment to the 2024–25 general fund budget (Ordinance 007-2025), the ordinance adopting the 2025–26 budgets for multiple funds (Ordinance 008-2025, first reading), and an ordinance increasing the pay classification table by 4% effective July 1, 2025 (Ordinance 009-2025, first reading). Those ordinances were presented on first reading and were not adopted at the meeting.

Council members framed next steps as a combination of additional finance-committee review and procedural follow-up: staff will confirm the audit publication status and correct website links if needed, and the finance committee will meet at least once this summer to model multi-year revenue and expenditure scenarios and evaluate options (including a potential tax-rate change) before any final vote later in the year.

The council left the budget ordinances on first reading and did not vote to adopt the 2025'26 budget at the meeting; members said the record and additional finance meetings will inform the second reading and any vote.

Residents and council members requested clearer, earlier posting of agenda packets and budget documents so the public can review materials with more than a few days' notice. The council said it will consider operational changes to website posting and to provide more notice of public hearings if required by local ordinance or procedure.