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Planning, public works and development directors warn vacancies, long permit timelines and M2 obligations would worsen without revenue or staffing
Summary
Community & Economic Development and Public Works directors told the ad hoc committee that staffing shortages and existing maintenance-of-effort (M2) obligations limit options for further cuts and that one-time revenue ideas (claiming unclaimed engineering balances, reissued bonds, internal-service fund draws) could yield limited short-term relief.
Senayna Thomas, director of Community & Economic Development, and Public Works Director Steven Baez described how chronic vacancies and reliance on consultants have stretched departmental capacity and impaired permit and code-enforcement turnaround times.
Thomas said plan checks and permit issuance are high (roughly 8,700 per year for the city) and that the department frequently relies on professional-services contracts to augment staff, which can cost two to three times the equivalent in-house cost and lacks institutional continuity. She said a 5% cut would lengthen review timelines, reduce on-time performance and affect revenue realization from development.
Baez said Public Works manages multiple funds, including enterprise and restricted funds, and highlighted the citys maintenance-of-effort (M2) requirement for regional roads funding. He warned that reducing general-fund CIP support would risk losing regional funding and that the department has limited general-fund flexibility.
To meet near-term shortfalls, Baez presented one-time revenue ideas: claiming long-unclaimed private-development engineering account balances (staff estimate ~$700,000 available after noticing), recovering previously unclaimed engineered bonds (staff estimate ~$145,000), and drawing down internal-service fund balances (estimated $101,500). He emphasized that these are one-time remedies and would require council action and noticing processes.
"We're not in a vacuum. If we reduce timeline and staffing, revenue is realized later or not at all," Thomas said, explaining the connection between staff capacity and development-driven revenues.
Both directors and committee members discussed the possibility of structural changes, such as asset transfers or exploring the sale/privatization of the water system, as longer-term revenue options but noted legal and practical constraints and the time required for complex procurement or elections.
