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City Council adopts FY2025-26 operating and capital budgets; adds positions and keeps reserves near policy targets
Summary
City finance staff presented a one-year budget for FY 2025-26 citing economic volatility; council adopted Resolution 25-71 to approve the operations, maintenance and capital improvement program budgets and an authorized position list, including several new roles funded by capital projects and allocations from tax measures.
The West Sacramento City Council adopted the fiscal year 2025-26 operations and capital budget on June 18, approving Resolution 25-71 and an updated authorized position list after a brief presentation by Finance Director Roberta Rayburn.
Lede facts: The adopted one-year budget covers July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. Staff explained the decision to propose a one-year budget (rather than the city's prior two-year approach) citing post-pandemic volatility, a new budget system implementation and rapidly changing revenue conditions.
Key changes and context: Roberta Rayburn told the council the budget is essentially "status quo" with limited new ongoing items but includes several priority additions. The general fund projected a modest surplus before supplemental requests. After approval of supplemental capital requests (about $22.2 million net requests citywide, primarily for CIP projects) and other items, the general fund one-time balance would be lower but sufficient to cover near-term priorities. The finance director also reported that the city's general reserve is projected to be roughly $14.0 million (about 18% of general fund revenues), which keeps the city within its reserve policy range.
Positions: The adopted budget includes four new positions proposed at the meeting: three project/engineering positions in the capital projects group (reimbursed by project charges) and one assistant city manager in general support services (allocated across funds). Finance staff said the capital-projects positions are fully reimbursable and thus have no net general-fund impact. Council and staff also discussed additional public-safety and operations positions previously authorized under Measure O; staff said 39 positions were approved earlier and an additional group of positions will take effect July 1 as part of the multi-year Measure O hiring plan.
Revenues and risks: Rayburn warned that sales tax receipts appear soft compared with previous years and that the city will monitor quarterly sales tax data as it becomes available (the city's consultant will supply geocoded, sector-level reports in coming quarters). She also noted strong short-term investment returns and work-order reimbursements that helped the current-year position.
Votes and next steps: Council voted to adopt Resolution 25-71 (operations and maintenance and capital improvement program budgets for FY25-26) by roll call. Staff will return to council in the fall with recommended uses of remaining capacity and to prioritize additional one-time and ongoing requests.
