Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Needles City Council directs staff to advance 2025–26 budget, schedules June 10 public hearing
Summary
Council directed staff to proceed with the draft 2025–26 budget and set a public hearing for June 10, 2025, after staff outlined revenue and expenditure projections and flagged capital street investments and rising personnel costs.
The Needles City Council on a unanimous voice vote directed staff to proceed with the proposed 2025–26 budget and scheduled a public hearing on June 10, 2025, for adoption of the fiscal plan that ends June 30, 2026. City Manager staff presented the proposal and Acting Finance Director Barbara Dillio walked the council through key projections.
Dillio told the council staff’s preliminary revenue projection is about $20.59 million and said general‑government revenues are down roughly $867,000 from the prior year’s figures. She said projected expenditures are roughly $12.03 million and that the city would hold reserves near $1.23 million (about a 10.2 percent reserve ratio). Staff warned of higher personnel and healthcare costs and noted several department cost increases — police contract (about a 6.4 percent increase), animal control (12.7 percent), building safety (13.9 percent) and parks and marina combined (a mid‑range increase reported in the presentation).
Council members and staff discussed capital needs, with staff describing a $2.3 million streets investment plan (including roughly $1 million from the general fund and additional funding from SP‑1, Measure I and grant sources). Dillio told the council capital projects not yet covered by recurring revenue would depend on grant awards; she emphasized conservatively‑estimated revenues to avoid “overpromising.”
Staff asked for council feedback on several capital items included in the plan packet, including a proposed animal‑shelter bathroom and improvements funded by donations. The city manager and finance staff clarified that donations earmarked for the shelter are available for those capital improvements but have not yet been incorporated into the operating budget lines.
Next steps: the council set a public hearing for June 10, 2025, and staff said the budget must be adopted by June 30, 2025; the city may hold a second meeting in June if more time is needed to complete adoption.
