Leesburg council hears FY2026 budget; delays two engineering hires and approves several one-time allocations

The Leesburg Town Council held a FY2026 budget work session at the Ida Lee Recreation Center where Town Manager Owen Dentler and Budget Officer Tamara Kiesecker presented a proposed budget, the town’s long-term sustainability plan and a range of staffing and capital requests.

Dentler told council the town maintains a AAA credit rating and healthy reserves but faces a budget gap for FY2026 partly tied to the council’s prior decision to eliminate the vehicle license fee for tax year 2025; staff estimates the current FY2026 budget shortfall at about $906,000. Dentler and Kiesecker emphasized that the town’s long-term sustainability guide includes assumptions about potential revenue from data centers and the six-year capital improvement plan; they cautioned that data center receipts are uncertain and staff prefer using those funds in arrears once money is received.

Council debated several proposed recurring and one-time enhancements included in the manager’s proposed budget: a senior plan-review engineer in Community Development, a transportation engineer in Public Works and Capital Projects, a cybersecurity/governance position in IT, a police IT manager, two police lieutenant positions, and increased recurring funding for milling and paving in FY2026. Staff described workload trends to justify additional engineering staff: Bill (engineering staff) and Mr. David told council major and minor land-development reviews have increased year over year while staffing has remained largely flat; the staff presentation noted the town is about 93% built out and projects are increasingly complex and in floodplains. Bill and other staff also said pending state legislation would shorten site-plan review timeframes (from the current 60-day initial review to 40 days, and subsequent reviews from 30 to 20), increasing pressure on a lean staff.

Council members questioned how new hires would be recruited and whether peer review paid for by applicants could reduce staff workload; staff said outside peer reviewers cost roughly $300–$400 per hour. For transportation work, staff said one existing transportation engineer has handled more than 150 right-of-way permits, more than 60 plan reviews and manages timing for 63 traffic signals; the proposed additional transportation engineer would assist with routine permits, traffic counts and the streetlight program.

On staffing decisions, councilors agreed by council action to delay hiring two engineering positions until Jan. 1, 2026: the senior engineer for Community Development and the Transportation Engineer in Public Works/Capital Projects. The council also approved several one-time allocations: $13,200 from the tree bank reserve to the Tree Commission’s program, $1,000 for the Commission on Public Art’s town ornament project and $2,500 for Parks & Recreation marketing (both from unassigned fund balance), a $100,000 one-time contribution to the Marshall House Visitor Center (from unassigned fund balance), and $25,000 for the St. James Cemetery project (from unassigned fund balance). Those items were supported by at least four council members during the meeting’s hands/voice confirmations.

Council considered but did not remove the cybersecurity/governance position after discussion about risk from phishing and ransomware. IT staff and the town manager described cyber risk as an area of elevated concern: an IT staff speaker said the proposed position would centralize governance, incident response and training and that the town’s existing team is handling cyber work in addition to other duties.

At the end of the session the council directed the town manager to return with proposed reductions totaling roughly $660,000 to close the FY2026 gap so councilors can review updated numbers at their next budget meeting. Dentler said staff will prepare a packet for the next meeting with proposed adjustments.