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Council approves budget amendments, two midyear FTEs, legislative agenda additions and African American Heritage Trail narrative
Summary
Council amended the FY25 budget to appropriate grants/donations and project transfers, authorized two midyear FTE additions (an audit director and a special project administrator to serve HDRFA), broadened its 2025 legislative agenda to include school construction and other education funding, and approved the African American Heritage Trail narrative developed with community input.
During the meeting council voted to amend the FY25 budget to appropriate grant funding (registrar grant for voting equipment) and donations (bench donations) and to transfer project funds to cover a stream restoration project and repaving cost increases. Finance staff explained a ledger posting glitch that swapped current and delinquent property tax reporting; staff are correcting that issue for the December report.
Council also authorized two midyear full‑time equivalents. Staff proposed creating an audit director position in Finance to focus on audit delivery and provide redundancy, and a Special Project Administrator in the city manager's office to serve as the executive director for the HDRFA (to be reimbursed by the authority). Council discussed funding sources (vacancy savings/reserves and HDFA reimbursement), hiring timeline and potential 50/50 split of time between city and HDRFA duties; the council approved adding the positions and amending the budget.
Council adopted its 2025 legislative agenda with a late request from the WJCC School Board to seek state construction funding for PK–12 buildings; members broadened the agenda to include additional state funding for education generally.
Finally, council approved the African American Heritage Trail narrative prepared by an advisory committee and consultant JMI after collecting more than 50 personal stories since March 2023; council praised the work and approved the narrative to move the trail project forward.
