Council hears first reading of $2.9M additional appropriations; debate centers on timing and oversight
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Summary
Deputy Mayor Danielle Caritone presented Ordinance 25‑83 for several additional appropriations. Councilor John Dart criticized the timing and called for quarterly appropriation requests and tighter spending controls; council agreed to pursue quarterly reporting. The ordinance was introduced for first reading and was not voted on tonight.
Deputy Mayor Danielle Caritone brought Ordinance 25‑83 forward as a first reading, describing the measure as an additional-appropriation ordinance covering several funds including general, fire, park impact, law enforcement, police donation and capital project funds.
Caritone said some items reflect expenditures not anticipated during the budget cycle and that many requests draw from non‑reverting funds or impact fees. “I did send you guys an email with additional detail,” she said, and offered to walk council through individual items.
Councilor John Dart raised a series of objections to the timing and scope. Dart said the ordinance package represents about $2.9 million in requests and argued that roughly $500,000 of that amount appeared to be overspend from general-fund line items. “At this point, we I feel like our hands are tied,” he said, urging the council to move to quarterly appropriation requests rather than a single end‑of‑year request. He also urged stricter review of routine expenditures.
Other councilors and staff responded: some line items reflect known non‑reverting or fee-based accounts (for example, rifle replacement and payroll audit adjustments), and staff said they had gathered department estimates. Legal counsel explained the use of the word “projected” in the ordinance language as typical drafting when forecasting a fund balance.
Council members signaled support for changing the cadence of appropriation requests; several said quarterly reviews would allow more focused discussion of individual items. The ordinance remained at first reading with staff proposing to follow up on preferred processes and more detailed line-item justifications.
What’s next: staff will provide additional line-item details and the council indicated a preference to move toward quarterly appropriation submissions going forward; a final vote on Ordinance 25‑83 was not taken at this meeting.
