Salisbury reviews clerk and council budget items for software, laptops, phones and staffing

City Clerk Julie English outlined proposed changes to the city clerk's and city council's budgets during a Salisbury council meeting, highlighting a new agenda-management software, expanded training funds, plans to issue city laptops and options for council cell phones, and a potential new position to support council duties.

The clerk said the primary account for the clerk's office is 11100 and that the office budgeted purchase and recurring costs in account 534502. "The biggest thing that we had a budget for this year is the software that we got to help manage and create the agenda packets," Julie English, city clerk for the City of Salisbury, said. She said the city plans a parallel test of the new agenda system on May 12 and expects to move it live afterward. English also said the software line item in the printing account (555502) included $5,000 to cover a revised contract with CivicPlus and Municode for online code and charter publishing.

English said the software implementation carries an annual cost in the budget. "So the 11,000, that will have a 5% uplift every year," she said, adding that she factors the increase into future budget requests. She also said Adobe Acrobat Pro and other licenses are budget considerations and that Adobe is not compatible with iPad devices, so council members would need city-issued laptops to run the software.

Council members discussed standardizing equipment and software on city-issued devices. The clerk said a uniform purchasing account was created with $100 budgeted for each council member for clothing and related items. The clerk's office is budgeting a standard computer configuration (HP or Dell), and the clerk said one council member, Deshawn, will receive a city-issued laptop this fiscal year; Councilman McGregor was identified as scheduled to receive one at the start of fiscal year 2026. The clerk said members who want a Mac would be expected to pay the difference themselves.

On phones, the council discussed two approaches: a stipend if members use personal devices for city business (the clerk suggested a $20 monthly allocation as a minimum) or issuing city phones with a higher monthly allocation (a $40-per-month figure was discussed). Council participants raised the risk that personal devices used for city business can be subject to public-records requests; the group described that exposure in connection with MPIA-style requests. The clerk said the budget currently includes a phone allocation and that, if more members opt for city phones, the city would need to increase the cell-phone line item.

The clerk said training and travel funding for the clerk and deputy clerk was increased to provide enough budget for both staff to attend municipal clerk conferences. English described the training and travel budget rising from $5,600 to $6,000 and said a conference-related line item of about $5,500 was included to cover attendance costs if council members attend conferences and hotel stays.

Council members also discussed whether to add a staff position to assist the clerk's office and council work—principally to answer constituent calls and handle administrative tasks. The clerk and other council members said the topic had been added to the discussion list for future consideration; the position was not funded in the current budget but could be considered in fiscal year 2026 once the new software is in place and the deputy clerk gains more experience.

Procedural action: the council agreed to a brief recess. A motion for a short recess was moved and seconded and passed by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.

The discussion covered procurement and license-management issues as well as the records-exposure risks of using personal devices for city business. The clerk said she will pursue budget transfers as an interim measure to cover some of the current-year costs (for phones and software) until they are formally budgeted for fiscal year 2026.