Personnel committee adopts Board of Aldermen FY2027 budget after presentation

The St. Louis City Personnel and Administration Committee voted to adopt the Board of Aldermen’s preliminary FY2027 budget on Feb. 5 after a presentation by Chief of Staff Jay Nelson.

Nelson told the committee the draft budget before members totaled $5,615,876, compared with a preliminary allocation from the budget division of $5,505,000. He said personnel costs — ‘‘salaries, FICA, employment retirement, medical insurance and workers’ comp’’ — are the principal driver, accounting for roughly $5,200,000 of the general budget. Nelson said the committee’s draft will go to Director Payne and that department requests for FY27 are due to the budget division on Feb. 11.

The presentation highlighted several contract and service costs that changed year over year. Nelson listed a GoVocal community engagement platform at about $42,000 annually, a civic-clerk agenda-and-minutes platform estimated at $74,000 in year one (declining to about $70,000 thereafter), and a constituent-service software quote up to $52,000 per year. He also described a proposed performance-review platform intended to replace a paper-based process.

Nelson asked members to note smaller additions to the draft: $5,000 for education and training (after prior-year spending) and a $25,000 legal-services allocation that the committee had moved into the Board of Aldermen budget under city code. Professional services for mailing and printing remained at $35,000, though Nelson said the board historically spends less against that account and some funds appear underutilized.

Committee members pressed on the scope of salary increases. The draft, Nelson said, reflects previously approved adjustments (the committee’s typical 3% opt-in) and does not include any potential future citywide raises, including an unresolved proposal tied to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department that could affect overall city finances; any new raises would require the board to opt in and appear in a future forecast. "This is not account for any potential forecast increase for any department at this time," Nelson said.

Members also raised operational issues that could affect the budget: legislative assistants currently lack dedicated office phones and often use personal cell phones for city business, which a member said complicates public-records transparency. Nelson said the board’s landline upgrade is underway and offered to return with cost estimates and implementation options for city-issued cell phones, an internship program for aldermen, and a mileage reimbursement procedure handled through the comptroller’s office. "If they're using their personal cell phones to do city business, that [communication] is unshineable," Nelson said when discussing recordkeeping.

After discussion, an alderman moved to adopt the board’s FY2027 budget as presented; the motion was seconded and carried on a roll call with four aye votes. Chair announced the committee would defer consideration of agenda line item 2 because not all bids had been received in time for the meeting.

The committee asked staff to return with details on phone issuance, mileage reimbursement, and proposals for an intern program before finalizing departmental submissions to the budget division. The budget submission deadline to Director Payne is Feb. 11, 2026.