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Oak Ridge manager proposes 3% COLA, 2% step increase and targeted staffing additions in fiscal 2026 budget
Summary
City Manager Randy presented a fiscal 2026 budget proposal that includes a 3% cost-of-living adjustment, a 2% step increase, a multi-year market-comparison rotation for departments, and selected new positions and reclassifications tied to operations and capital projects.
City Manager Randy presented the Oak Ridge fiscal 2026 budget proposal, saying the plan includes a 3% cost-of-living adjustment and a 2% step increase for employees and targeted staffing changes across departments.
The proposal also structures a recurring market-comparison process that will review employee pay in roughly 3-year groupings of departments to keep compensation competitive, Randy said. The first group includes public safety alignment already included in the current budget cycle, with public works, recreation and information services slated for the next review period.
Randy told council members the budget adds a number of positions and reclassifications. He said the administration considered 16 position requests and 21 reclassification requests, approving nine new positions and four reclassifications as part of the package. The budget also keeps a previously added $500,000 increment for street paving requested in fiscal 2025.
The package maintains a fund-balance plan that the city used in fiscal 2025, with projected unassigned fund balance carried forward. On revenue, Randy said sales and property tax growth are steady and projected overall revenues to increase about 7.1% compared with the prior year.
Randy said the administration is not proposing changes to the certified tax rate in the draft budget; certified property tax rates from Roane and Anderson counties were still pending at the time of the presentation. He also said the city is pausing a planned PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) transfer out of the Water Works Fund until a rate-study and further analysis are complete.
The council’s compensation committee unanimously approved the compensation recommendations and will refer them to the Budget and Finance committee for review before the first reading of the budget, Eric said during the meeting.
The presentation included a list of capital priorities that staff highlighted for fiscal 2026 — notably an animal shelter, an outdoor pool renovation design and a ladder truck for the fire department — and a vehicle-replacement plan estimated at about $700,000 for the year.
