Westminster staff presents balanced proposed FY2025–26 budget; council questions reserve use and staffing requests

City of Westminster staff on May 14 presented a proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget totaling $154,300,000 and asked the City Council for direction on supplemental staffing requests and fund-balance priorities ahead of a scheduled adoption hearing on June 25, 2025.

The presentation said the proposed budget would leave the city with a projected reserve balance of roughly $45–46 million at the end of FY25–26 and that the general fund projection “adds $624,000 to reserves” in the proposed budget without supplementals; with the supplementals the contribution falls to $244,000. Staff characterized the proposed general fund as the first balanced budget in six years.

Why it matters: council members pressed staff on multi-year projections showing reserve balances declining in later years, large projected increases in CalPERS (pension) costs in the late 2020s, and whether one-time or recurring revenues should be used for ongoing costs. Several council members and staff discussed tradeoffs between adding staffing to improve service and maintaining or increasing reserve levels to buffer future pension spikes.

Key facts and figures presented - Total proposed city budget: $154,300,000. The general fund was shown as $90,500,000 (58%); water funds $24,200,000 (16%); internal service funds $13,700,000. - Special revenue funds: revenues shown as $13,900,000 and expenditures $7,700,000, with $9,300,000 in transfers to capital projects. - Staff said three water-fund supplementals total about $158,000; five general-fund supplementals total about $380,000 (eight total supplemental…