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San Buenaventura staff outlines FY2027 budget timeline; CIP adoption set for March 24, public hearing June 9
Summary
At a budget workshop the city presented a high-level FY2027 process: CIP adoption March 24, budget proposal April 28 (to meet the May 1 charter transmittal), and a public hearing for adoption scheduled for June 9; staff also reported early cannabis store revenues matched expectations.
City finance staff provided a high-level overview of the FY2027 budget process at the Finance, Audit and Budget Committee meeting on Feb. 17, laying out key dates and the order in which new spending requests will be considered.
“We need to propose to the City Council a proposed budget on or before May 1 every year,” the chief financial officer said, describing charter deadlines and the committee’s schedule. Staff said an adopted capital improvement plan on March 24 will feed into the budget work, with the formal budget proposal expected April 28 and a public hearing to consider adoption scheduled for June 9.
Staff emphasized the workshop was informational and did not include detailed revenue projections; a second budget workshop with numbers was scheduled for March and a third for May before the June public hearing. The presentation outlined the sequence staff uses for considering new spending requests: first sustain core services, then mandatory changes, then council strategic priorities and other requests.
Committee members asked several operational and revenue questions. One member asked whether a $250,000 tree-maintenance allocation from the prior year would continue; staff confirmed it has been added to the base budget. On vacancy savings, staff said the city budgets a vacancy rate that historically amounts to about 5–7% of the personnel budget (roughly $5–7 million on a $100 million personnel budget).
On cannabis revenue, staff reported three stores are open and, based on the latest receipts, each store is producing roughly $220,000–$230,000 per year—near the earlier projection of about $200,000 per store.
Committee members also raised questions about longer-term issues and tools, such as potential surplus-property discussions and how artificial intelligence might affect future budget work. Staff warned that AI-generated summaries can be inconsistent and said AI has not been incorporated into core budget processes because outputs require careful validation; staff described an example in which an AI output incorrectly suggested imminent bankruptcy.
Next steps described to the committee: staff will present the CIP adoption on March 24 (which informs the budget), hold a second workshop with numbers in March, transmit the proposed budget in April, and hold a public hearing in June for adoption.
