Woodland Hills finance committee recommends 2025–26 budget after discussion of roads, fire equipment and legal costs

The Woodland Hills Finance Committee voted to recommend the citys draft fiscal year 2025—6 budget to the full city council after reviewing revenue estimates and proposed increases to several expense categories, including roads, fire equipment and legal defense funds.

The committees review focused on why some operational accounts are ahead or behind typical year-to-date spending and on a handful of larger one-time or capital needs. "We are gonna have to open the budget to make several changes to individual line items," said Chris, a city staff member who presented the numbers, summarizing the committees reason for the mid-year adjustments.

Committee members said the largest near-term concerns are (1) public-safety cashflow tied to out-of-state fire deployments and reimbursements; (2) a multi-year plan for roads that could total roughly $2 million over coming years; (3) funding to restore legal-defense reserves that have been partly exhausted by a string of related lawsuits; and (4) continued IT and cybersecurity costs.

Fire and emergency reimbursements have produced timing effects in the budget, staff said. Chris explained that public-safety line items appear elevated because the city has paid crews and equipment before the state and other agencies have reimbursed the city: "It's because we paid them, but we haven't been paid yet," he said. The committee heard that fuel-reduction and mutual-aid deployments sometimes require up-front spending and that reimbursement can lag by months.

Roads were a central topic. Members cited a recently purchased road plan and said the city will need to prioritize projects over the next two years. Committee members said Ted, the public-works staff member, has identified roughly $2 million in likely road and water-line work over the next two years; some repairs would be coordinated with water projects to avoid redoing pavement. Committee members discussed whether the city should begin saving now to meet that eventual need.

Legal spending also drew attention. The committee was told a long-running set of lawsuits related to a local development has depleted insurance support on that series of claims, and staff recommended restoring the citys internal legal-defense reserve. "We need to put at least a hundred thousand dollars back" into the legal line, Chris said, adding that the insurer has declined further coverage for that particular claim and the city currently has limited remaining coverage attributed to the matter.

The committee also reviewed administrative costs. Jody, a staff member who manages records and accounting inputs, highlighted several one-time and recurring items: the citys new IT support contract (about $18,000 annually), Zoom and subscription fees, and membership dues. "This is an ongoing expense, and so were probably looking at $18,000 a year" for the contracted IT service, she said. The committee discussed whether the contract had been competitively procured and noted the city had not run an RFP for that service.

On revenues, staff noted uncertainty in property-tax projections until the county provides final assessed-value estimates in June and that motor-vehicle and sales tax receipts can change with how residents register purchases. The committee also discussed a planned sale of surplus capital equipment; staff said council previously approved releasing several items and that proceeds could be used for capital needs.

After the discussion, a committee member moved that the finance committee recommend the proposed budget, with the adjustments discussed, to the full city council. The motion was seconded and approved by voice vote; committee members directed staff to return with revised line items and to track any budget openings that might require a truth-in-taxation hearing.

The committee asked staff to return when revised figures and grant decisions are available so members could further evaluate whether to recommend a tax rate adjustment or other measures to accumulate funds for the multi-year roads program.