Cleveland Heights council presses administration for detailed budget book, timeline to close 2025 temporary budget

Cleveland Heights City Council members spent the bulk of their Jan. 6 committee-of-the-whole meeting focused on the city's temporary appropriations and the process for producing a full 2025 budget. Councilors asked the administration for a detailed, department-level budget book, November and December financials, year-end fund balances and schedules that show how personnel and capital numbers were calculated.

The discussion centered on two separate but related items on the agenda: an ordinance to repeal and replace parts of the 2024 appropriations ordinance for the period Jan. 1'March 31 and a separate ordinance creating appropriations for Jan. 21'Dec. 31, 2025. The mayor repeatedly emphasized the legal distinction between the two documents. "An appropriations ordinance is not a budget. It's based on a budget," the mayor said during the discussion.

Councilors said they need more transparent detail before they can move from the temporary appropriations step to a full-year budget. Councilman Josh (last name as in transcript: Petros) urged a complete set of departmental schedules and comparisons to prior-year actuals, and Councilman Larson said the packet should include the October, November and December financials and the city's unencumbered 2024…