Delray Beach communications director requests part-time culinary instructor, equipment for Creative Arts School

Gina Carter, Director of Communications for the City of Delray Beach, told the city commission on May 20 that her department’s operations request for fiscal year 2025–26 focuses on personnel and modest program growth. Carter said 87% of the communications budget is allocated to personnel and that operations spending is down about 4% from last year.

The department manages 13 social platforms, a digital newsletter with more than 10,000 subscribers, a 300-plus page website, a city magazine (about 7,000 average readers), the My Delray Beach mobile app, and citywide marketing and internal communications services. “For 2025, ’26, we have 87% of my budget for communications is in personnel, and then we have 12% that’s actually for operations,” Carter said.

Carter also briefed commissioners on the Creative Arts School, which she said has offered about 20 classes and workshops in its first six months and recorded roughly 350 registrations (the presenter called these registrations, not unique students). “We’ve generated about $63,000. Most of that is tuition,” Carter said.

To expand programming, Carter requested a level-of-service increase totaling $40,000: $30,000 for a part-time culinary arts professional to build and run a culinary program and $10,000 to purchase basic kitchen equipment (utensils, pots, pans, blenders, knives). She described the current kitchen as empty and said equipment might be available from a local donor but that the department likely will need to purchase items.

On advertising and operations, Carter proposed $14,000 for citywide advertising and noted that some subscription services (Hootsuite, Constant Contact) account for a portion of the operating budget. “So for this year… I’m proposing $14,000. That’s $14,000 for advertising for the entire city,” she said.

Commissioners praised the program and the presentation during the workshop. At least one commissioner said the Citizens Academy and Creative Arts School were well received and expressed support for the proposed culinary classes. Carter said she will provide additional budget detail as part of the broader June 10 budget workshop.

The request and the department’s line-item breakdown will be included in the commission’s aggregate budget discussion on June 10 ahead of the formal proposed budget in July.