City manager lays out compressed budget timeline and new digital budget book for 2026 cycle
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Summary
City Manager presented a detailed budget timeline emphasizing earlier CIP review, a new digital budget book (Gravity), increased forecasting to avoid last year’s shortfall, and a target to adopt the budget by June 1; council raised questions about ward representation, department detail and CVB/DDA reporting.
City Manager (identified in the meeting record) presented an accelerated and more transparent budget timeline on Jan. 5, telling East Point council the timeline aims to prevent last year’s near‑miss on millage forecasting and to provide more visible capital project planning.
The manager described a multi‑month process that includes a new five‑year capital improvement plan presented per project, a community charrette in March focused on CIP priorities, department highlights in March and a recommended city manager’s budget submission targeted for April 20. "We'll be ready to, adopt a budget June 1," the city manager said, noting June 1 is required under the city ordinance while the state deadline is June 30.
Interim Finance Director Elizabeth Cartwright outlined the city’s choice of Gravity software for the digital budget book and said the platform supports graphics and detailed line items: "Our new budget book will allow us to put graphics in… we've actually been working with them for at least a good 9 months now," she said. Staff committed that detailed line‑item support will remain available in the back of the book so council members can see the components behind aggregated totals.
Council members pressed for safeguards to ensure ward‑representative community input, and asked that the Budget & Finance Committee be explicitly involved in review (citing charter Section 2‑2003(c)). Councilmembers also sought clarity on how CVB and DDA budgets would be presented and whether restricted hotel/motel tax shares are properly separated; the city attorney and manager said the CVB receives a designated share (discussed in meeting as 43.75% of the hotel/motel allocation) and that reporting can be presented in a transparent, one‑page format without implying city control of restricted funds.
Council asked for a vacancy list for boards, authorities and commissions; Atkins’s motion for the clerk to provide a detailed vacancy document passed unanimously. Staff said one‑on‑ones with council members, targeted community meetings and a goal‑setting consultant workshop will supplement presentations and that staff will present fiscal outlook assumptions and forecasting in February.
