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City outlines $7M in proposed cuts and service reductions to narrow FY27 gap
Summary
Budget staff presented a package of nearly $7 million in savings — including vacancy eliminations, pausing the housing trust contribution, reduced community-center hours, and cuts to public-art and maintenance contracts — that would shrink the projected gap but leave additional balance to find.
Lindsay Spangler, budget and performance manager, walked council through an initial list of budget-balancing strategies that she said would yield just under $7 million toward closing the FY2026–27 shortfall.
Spangler said savings would come from a mix of efficiencies (estimated at about $1 million from training, software and contract reductions), targeted vacancy eliminations (positions vacant 250+ days), program pauses (including temporarily pausing the housing-trust contribution), and one-time transfers that draw on enterprise fund balances.
Service changes: Spangler listed proposed service reductions that include reducing off-season community-center hours by about 13% (summer hours would be unchanged), pausing the annual 1% CIP contribution to the public-art fund for FY27, trimming security contracts at lower-risk community centers, and reducing median and guardrail maintenance contracts and some litter/hotspot cleaning coverage. Parks and public-works staff said the hour reductions would be site-specific and that some contract work could be done in-house at reduced scope, focused on sight triangles and high-priority corridors.
Staff emphasized that vacancy eliminations target unfilled positions; councilors repeatedly asked whether filled jobs would be lost and received staff confirmation that the proposed vacancy actions would not eliminate filled, incumbent roles, though temporary/seasonal hires could see schedule reductions.
What’s next: Spangler said the full package reduces the presented gap from roughly $14.2 million to about $7 million; council asked for more detail about the distributional impacts of cuts and timing for service changes. Staff committed to follow-up detail and to return with any changes at the April 14 session ahead of the May proposed budget.
