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Clermont council adopts tentative budget amid debate over EMS costs, reserves and health-care projections
Summary
The City of Clermont council adopted a tentative FY 2025–26 budget and discussed a plan to add ambulance transport services, the use of roughly $16 million in unassigned reserves, proposed grant-revenue conditions and disputed health-care line items.
The City of Clermont City Council voted 4–1 to adopt Resolution 2025028R, the city’s tentative FY 2025–26 budget, after extended discussion about EMS transport, health insurance costs and the use of reserves.
Finance Director Scott Ward read the tentative budget into the record and reminded the council of the requirement for a public hearing; there were no public speakers on the budget item. During council deliberations members proposed amendments including adding $750,000–$1.5 million in contingent grant revenue, reducing the health-care projection from $8.8 million to $7.4 million, and removing a $4.6 million capital-reserve transfer as a condition of hiring a grant-writer.
A central thread of the debate was an emerging proposal to place ambulance transport operations under the city’s oversight. The fire chief (speaker 7) said the Clermont-area service area logged roughly 4,000 transports and about 8,000 total calls last year; he outlined a phased plan to add ambulances (two this year, two next year) and discussed options to operate initially under Lake County’s license while pursuing independent billing later.
Council members and staff discussed how the county would reimburse transports: staff cited an average county offer of $4.2358 per transport plus an MSTU (municipal services taxing unit) allocation of about $141.81 per call; council members pressed for a clearer, fixed annual dollar amount rather than a per-transport figure. Finance staff also told the council the city’s unassigned reserves are approximately $16,000,000 and said the city’s total outstanding debt service is about $75,500,000, of which about $48,000,000 is enterprise-related (wastewater/infrastructure).
After weighing tradeoffs — faster EMS response versus the ongoing cost pressure on reserves and insurance — the council approved the tentative budget by roll call. Members said staff will provide further detail and that council can revisit specific budget line items before the final-adoption hearing later this year.
