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La Verne council receives strategic plan update, directs detailed program cost reviews amid tight budget
Summary
After a February strategic planning session, the council received a condensed program and services review and directed staff to produce more granular cost‑recovery and program‑priority information to support the 2026–27 budget; council stressed the need to identify mandatory services and where partial or full cost recovery is possible.
The La Verne City Council on April 20 received and filed a report summarizing the city’s February 7, 2026 strategic planning session and an accompanying program and services review, and directed staff to provide more detailed program‑level cost and cost‑recovery data to inform the upcoming budget.
City manager Ken Domer and finance director Christy Lopez presented the review, describing efforts to inventory departmental programs, estimate costs, and distinguish mandated services from discretionary programs. Domer said the council reconfirmed priorities—financial stability, stakeholder engagement, adaptive public safety, and resilient infrastructure—and asked staff to identify items that are revenue generating, cost recoverable, partially recoverable, or not recoverable.
Finance director Christy Lopez explained the review is preliminary and that departments must improve project coding to better track staff time and program costs. "We tried to get as much information as possible," Lopez said, but added the effort requires more detailed project coding and follow‑up work to quantify true costs for some services.
Council members asked staff to publish itemized program cost information and use the program decision tree to flag programs that might be outsourced, reduced, or targeted for sponsorship. Councilmember Laauo and others emphasized transparency so residents can understand the tradeoffs if reductions are necessary.
The council voted to receive and file the report and provided direction to staff for further analysis and budget development. The motion passed 4–0 with Council member Casper absent.
