Mayor opens Legislative Budget Hearings as departments press staffing and equipment needs

The mayor called the city's Legislative Budget Hearings to order and framed the sessions as a chance for department leaders to present funding requests that reflect both the city's priorities and constraints from uncertain state and macroeconomic conditions. The mayor warned that proposed state legislation to cap property taxes could limit local fiscal flexibility and said city officials are watching state bills closely.

Departments focused their budget requests on people and recurring costs. Public Service sought staffing and an operational fund to transition Chahawi Park from an event-driven facility to a day-to-day park that would require a dedicated maintenance crew of seven positions and roughly $1 million in combined startup/operational costs; the administration said the change is expected to be revenue-neutral when offset by reallocated Legends funding. Rachel Butler, Public Service director, said the work will involve inventorying 19 buildings on the site and re-orienting the property toward year-round park operations.

Fleet Director Nick Bradshaw detailed operations of the city's 1,600-asset fleet and asked for support to sustain on-board technologies, vehicle electrification and a possible transfer of tow/record-inspector work from KPD into Fleet. Bradshaw highlighted moving to 100% AVL (automated vehicle location) by year's end and running 54 electric vehicles in the non-bus fleet.

Transit (CAT) Director Isaac described near-full staffing after recent pay increases, steady ridership gains (more than 3 million rides last year), and a push toward cashless fare systems and bus-stop upgrades. CAT reported 21 battery-electric buses in service with three more due this fiscal year and said a planning grant application could fund a joint regional maintenance facility.

Plan review and building inspections director Peter Ers said reforms and customer outreach have reduced review cycles but that growth in complex, infill projects has driven a 30–40% increase in some permit and review workloads. He asked that new inspection capacity be funded from fee revenue and noted that fire-construction permits will begin being charged April 1.

Public safety requests focused on both equipment and staffing. KPD leaders described plans to move patrol from a 12-hour to a 10-hour shift to reduce fatigue and built-in overtime; they also requested additional first-line supervisors to maintain acceptable officer-to-supervisor ratios under the new schedule. KPD leaders flagged a growing backlog of public-records video requests and asked for more audiovisual/case-processing capacity. Fire leadership proposed leasing replacement radios and cardiac monitors as a budget-stable alternative to a lump-sum purchase, and asked to restore uniformed firefighter staffing lost in prior years to reduce mandatory overtime costs.

Human Resources asked the council to consider expanding the performance-pay pool and funding a full compensation study to address compression and long-term recruitment pressures. HR leaders said the city has used a mix of pay, benefits and career-path investments to reduce vacancies in several technical departments.

Other departmental requests included two emergency-management positions (a planner and a public-information officer) to sustain both pre-incident planning and EOC messaging; a senior-accountant position for the Community Action Committee to support grant accounting and audit completion; and small operating increases for KGIS to support training and partner conversions that fund aerial imagery and LiDAR.

Several departments proposed leasing options rather than capital purchases to smooth multi-year costs for expensive equipment: radios and medical monitors for public safety were discussed as lease alternatives that include maintenance and replacements.

The mayor closed the day by thanking department teams for their presentations and said council and administration staff will reconcile priorities and revenue forecasts in the coming weeks as the budget is refined. The hearings will continue with additional departmental sessions and follow-up from finance staff.

Sources: departmental presentations during the Legislative Budget Hearings, March 2026. Quotes and attributions in this report are drawn only from people who introduced themselves on the record during the hearing.