Monroeville holds first public hearing on proposed 2026 budget as health and retiree costs drive increases

Monroeville held the first of two public hearings on its draft 2026 municipal budget, where department heads and staff outlined cost drivers and answered council questions but did not vote on the plan.

Manager Alex and finance staff told council that the biggest pressures on the draft budget are employee health-insurance costs and a change in how retiree medical (OPEB) obligations will be shown in departmental budgets. Staff said the municipality will stop treating OPEB as a self-contained fund and instead allocate retiree-health costs to individual departments, a move the mayor and manager described as improving transparency. Council and staff said the OPEB account currently holds about $8 million against an estimated roughly $40 million liability.

Finance director Josie said the reallocation will show each department's true costs and could increase line items across the budget. Manager Alex emphasized the move is intended to be an accounting and transparency change, not a refusal to cover contractual retiree benefits: "We will always pay those amounts," Alex said.

Council members questioned whether allocating OPEB costs to departments would unfairly burden units that inherited employees who worked across multiple departments; staff said they will develop an approach to address employees with mixed service histories.

Staff and department heads also flagged continuing pressures from healthcare, pension contributions and contract-service growth. Alex reminded the council that the packet is a draft, that staff have cut where feasible and that the next public hearing will take place one week from the meeting for further comment before the council considers adoption in December.

The hearing concluded without formal votes; council adjourned after a motion and second.