Committee forwards budget amendment to cover insurance for grant-funded staff

The Community and Economic Development Committee on March 26 voted to forward Bill 23 to the full City Council. The ordinance would amend the 2025 risk fund budget to provide additional budget authority to cover insurance expenditures for staff funded by the city’s recompete grant.

Miss Kistler, a department staff member in the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development, told the committee that the issue arose after the recompete grant was awarded. "When the budget was submitted and we worked with finance, all of the salaries were put into the 2025 budget, but for some reason the cost of the benefits were not put in the budget," she said, describing the amendment as a neutral budget item needed to establish the insurance lines for grant-funded staff.

Kistler said some salaries for existing staff have already been billed to the recompete grant and that staff began drawing recompete funds in October. She said the department has one held vacancy it plans to fill and that a brief period of data-entry system downtime briefly delayed processing, but the program is otherwise proceeding.

A committee member moved to forward the bill favorably to full council; another member seconded the motion, and the committee chair called for a voice vote. The motion was forwarded favorably to full council by voice vote.

Committee members were told finance staff will return with a related ordinance to reclassify portions of salary allocation in the budget so that salaries reimbursed by recompete are reflected in grant accounts. That ordinance was announced as forthcoming and will be presented to the full council for consideration.