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Upland City Council approves midyear budget adjustments, reclassifies public works director role
Summary
The Upland City Council voted unanimously to accept the fiscal year 2024–25 midyear budget review, approve multiple budget adjustments and position updates, raise the capital asset depreciation threshold to $10,000 and designate reserves for pension, police personnel and streets.
The Upland City Council voted unanimously Monday to receive and file the fiscal year 2024–25 midyear budget review and approve a package of budget adjustments and fund balance designations.
Stacy Sullivan, the city's finance manager, told the council the city's audited beginning fund balance for the year was $15.8 million, up from the staff estimate of about $9.6 million. "Primarily, attributed to interest income, sales tax, charges for services, franchise tax, and the development impact fee reconciliation," Sullivan said.
City staff recommended several expenditure and structural adjustments, including a requested general fund increase of about $400,000 to cover unanticipated costs; position and salary-split adjustments for public works engineering and inspection; reclassifying one vacant public works director position to an assistant city manager/public works director role; and an increase in the capital asset depreciation threshold to $10,000 to align with inflation and industry practice.
Assistant City Manager Steven Parker described the reclassification as a reshaping of existing duties rather than a net new position. He said the reclassified post would assume some responsibilities now carried by the assistant city manager—potentially recreation and community services, certain contracts and emergency management duties—while salary-split changes reduce general fund impact. Parker said the net effect on the general fund for the public works changes is a decrease of $21,929 for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Sullivan told the council staff recommends reserving a portion of the unexpected positive variance. The proposal would place $200,000 into fund 755 for unfunded pension (UAL) costs, $200,000 toward increased police personnel costs, and the remaining balance—just over $300,000—into a reserve for future street improvements. If approved, staff said the infrastructure improvement reserve would increase from $3.9 million to $4.8 million.
Council members asked for more committee-level review in the future. Council Member Maust suggested more midcourse review by the finance committee so members could ask detailed questions before final council action; Parker and staff said it would be appropriate to place similar future items before the finance committee or call a special meeting when timing required.
The council also approved the updated schedule of positions and the recommended midyear fund balance designations. Council Member Persis moved to accept the staff recommendations; the motion was seconded and the package passed unanimously.
The council packet and staff presentation note the general fund revenue bump includes one-time items such as ARPA interest earnings and two months of lease revenue from a Tesla property. Staff characterized several of the revenue increases as one-time or timing-related and recommended reserving the net surplus rather than treating it as ongoing revenue.
The council's midyear action follows the quarter 1 report presented in October and staff said the recommended moves are intended to shore up reserves, reflect operational realities and align capital accounting practices with current thresholds.
No additional formal actions were taken on related capital projects; staff said designated park lease revenues remain set aside and were not redirected under the recommended designations.
