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Maplewood council previews key 2026 budget items for IT, public works and community development
Summary
City staff outlined proposed 2026 budgets: IT seeks continued security tools and an intern, Public Works flagged staff and equipment increases plus a facility study, and Community Development requested modest staffing support and pilot funds for emergency housing responses.
Maplewood — City staff on Nov. 24 presented the council with previews of major items in the proposed 2026 budgets, focusing on cybersecurity and staffing for IT, capital and maintenance needs for Public Works, and modest program investments for Community Development.
Michael Folds, the city’s IT director, told the council the IT fund is an internal service paid by department charges and said three areas are driving increased costs: "hardware/software increases, security enhancements, and some staffing changes." He said the department adopted additional Microsoft 365 security licenses, partnered with the state to deploy CrowdStrike endpoint protection and implemented a Security Information and Event Management tool to centralize logs and monitoring. Folds said the budget includes an intern position and an accounting change moving a police-funded IT technician into the IT budget to provide a clearer view of IT costs.
Public Works staff summarized operations and capital work, noting the department manages 41 employees across six divisions and that staff reconstructed 4.4 miles of road this year and added a mile of trail. The presenter said the city’s Pavement Condition Index now sits at 76.7% after 2025 projects. On the 2026 ask, Public Works proposed one new park maintenance worker and one new street maintenance worker, funding for a public-works facility study, upgrades to the utility-locate/asset-management process, and money for hazardous cleanup on city properties. The presenter also highlighted stormwater upgrades intended to improve water quality entering Wakefield Lake.
Ms. Parr, representing Community Development, asked for small program investments and noted sustained workloads: she described a $5,000 pilot fund to respond to urgent housing/code situations and $15,000 for a summer intern program, and said the building-permit workload remains high. Parr highlighted a recent operations win: "We enabled access for contractors to apply, pay, and receive licenses entirely online," which she said removed a bottleneck to doing business in Maplewood. She also previewed near-term items including a housing-rehab program and a 2050 comprehensive-plan process.
Why it matters: the three presentations together frame the council’s near-term capital and operating decisions that will be advanced in the city’s truth-in-taxation hearing and upcoming budget workshops. The items flagged — cybersecurity service subscriptions, new maintenance staff, an updated utility-locate system and small pilot funds for emergency housing responses — will be weighed against revenues as the council finalizes the 2026 budget and the 2026–2030 capital improvement plan.
Council reaction was broadly supportive; members thanked staff for enhancing cybersecurity, for maintaining city infrastructure, and for improving customer-facing services for contractors. No votes were taken on the budget items that night; staff noted more detailed budget hearings and the truth-in-taxation presentation are forthcoming.
