Fountain Hills adopts tentative FY26 budget after debate over COLA and fire-command promotions

The Fountain Hills Town Council adopted the tentative budget for fiscal year 2026 after a multi-hour presentation and amendments to staff cost-of-living adjustments and public-safety staffing.

Finance staff presented the proposed tentative budget and noted adjustments discussed in prior sessions, including a prospective 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for town staff that the manager said could be increased. After discussion, the council approved an amendment to raise the COLA to 3% for town staff; staff told the council that the 3% adjustment would increase departmental budgets by about $51,004, reduce general-fund contingency, and require minor increases in the streets and economic-development funds to cover employees paid from those sources.

The council also debated a fire‑department staffing package intended to make the department eligible for the regional automatic-aid system. Fire Chief David Ott and several residents described automatic aid as the "gold standard" for coordinated emergency response and urged the council to fund promotions to battalion chief and backfill the resulting vacancies. Chief Ott said he needed the council’s funding commitment so he could assure the Life Safety Council the town would provide battalion chiefs as required for automatic aid.

Chief Ott told council that once the budget is adopted and positions funded, the department would complete the required steps for automatic aid and said he preferred the funding to be available as soon as possible rather than waiting until January. Public speakers including a former fire captain urged immediate action. Eric Landau, a former fire captain, said automatic aid saves time during emergencies, improves coordination, and can lower insurance ratings for residents.

Council approved the tentative budget on a 6–1 vote at the meeting. The council also considered and rejected an amendment to move the fire-command promotions forward earlier than staff’s January timetable; a later amendment to add the funding for the fire-command structure was considered and failed on the council floor (vote tally varied by motion as recorded in the transcript). The adopted tentative budget includes a previously discussed plan to implement half of the command-structure funding now and the remainder as of Jan. 1, 2026, consistent with staffing and program timelines the chief described.

Staff emphasized the tentative budget does not exceed the town’s legal expenditure limitation and that certain federal grant pass-through items (for example, the proposed International Dark Sky Discovery Center project) are budgeted in a special-revenue fund and exclude from the expenditure limitation calculation.

Council members asked staff to return final budget numbers with the 3% COLA embedded, and staff agreed to bring the final budget for adoption at a future meeting with the technical adjustments needed for payroll and fund accounting.