Edmond council pushes to raise reserves, approves hiring freeze and asks staff for Labor Day budget update

The Edmond City Council spent its June special meeting debating how to restore its unassigned general fund reserves and agreed to implement a hiring freeze and return with a focused budget revision by Labor Day.

Kathy Panas, director of finance, opened the meeting by reminding the council that “this is our third public hearing on the budget… the goal for today is to be in a good good place at the end of the day, at the end of this meeting to hopefully get the budget adopted next Monday.” The draft budget presented to the council shows $413,000,000 in expenses, a roughly $40,000,000 decrease from last year, and uses about $57,000,000 in reserves across funds.

Why it matters: Council members said they want to rebuild the city’s unassigned general fund reserves after several down years. Panas said the proposed budget leaves the unassigned general fund reserves at roughly 6.2%–7.3% and that the city needs about $2,600,000 to reach a 10% target. Staff laid out that each additional percent…