Council hears roughly $2.4 million in service-level requests: staffing, libraries, parks and public safety among priorities

City staff presented a set of FY26 service-level change requests at the spring financial workshop totaling roughly $2.4 million. The requests span staffing additions, program upgrades and one-time equipment or operating costs.

Highlights of requests presented by Deputy Finance Director Julie Kennicott and department leads: - Utilities: two operations positions — one water operator and one water-reclamation operator — to ensure operational depth and regulatory continuity; total cost over the year estimated in the service request package. - Public safety and animal services: Police requested an animal care technician for the city’s no-kill shelter and budget for annual range maintenance; Fire requested increased funding for regional enterprise communication subscriptions and expanded weed-abatement acreage for wildfire prevention (the latter is fully reimbursable under the city’s municipal code agreements, staff said). - Libraries and community services: Library electronic resources, recurring funding for additional books and an update to self-checkout equipment. Kennicott said an $11,000 recurring increase for books would add roughly 375 processed titles (about 2,800 physical items, counting standard processing and format mixes) under current unit-cost assumptions. Community Services requested funding for a pilot event-sponsorship program intended to attract 2–3 large-scale events via match incentives. - High-performing government: Legal and risk requested a senior deputy city attorney as part of succession-planning to cover increased workload and upcoming retirements.

Kennicott told council the full list (included in the meeting packet) contains further detail on one-time versus recurring costs and that staff will incorporate council direction into the FY26 proposed budget. The total recommended service-level amount presented was about $2.4 million (mixture of one-time and recurring). Council members asked for prioritization guidance and for staff to fold the highest-priority recurring requests into the baseline budget proposals.

What’s next: staff asked council to provide direction on which service-level items to include in the FY26 proposed budget; staff will return with the proposed budget in May and present the adoption item in June.