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Leon Valley unveils draft 10‑year capital plan; council asks for clearer fund breakdown and public input
Summary
City Manager presented a draft FY2027 capital plan showing roughly $6.3M in general‑fund available reserves and proposed FY27 priorities including police property room engineering ($500k allocated across funds), public works building planning, an ambulance purchase phased across years, and water/sewer main replacements; council asked for clearer splits by fund and a citizen prioritization survey.
Leon Valley — City Manager Dr. Caldera presented a draft FY2027 capital plan and a 10‑year projection to the City Council on April 7, highlighting available reserves, planned capital items and the need for public input on priorities.
Dr. Caldera said the city begins planning for FY27 with approximately $6.3 million available in general‑fund capital capacity under the proposed plan. Major FY27 items presented included a payroll time‑clock system to modernize employee timekeeping, police property room engineering and planning (a $500,000 allocation split across funds), continuing the multi‑year purchase of an ambulance (partly budgeted this year, remainder next year), and funding for public‑works building planning. The manager also noted that some projects are grant‑reimbursable (for example the Forest Oaks pool) and that the capital plan schedules reimbursable projects at full cost before reimbursements are posted.
“Your general fund starts with approximately 6.3 million dollars available,” the city manager told council as he outlined the draft priorities and explained that some larger projects have been split across multiple funds to reduce pressure on any single budget line.
Council members asked staff to produce clearer documentation that links each capital line item to the fund(s) that will pay for it. Several councilors sought more public engagement and suggested the city use a short resident prioritization survey and discuss capital tradeoffs at the upcoming retreat. Councilors also discussed maintaining a prudent reserve to avoid eroding fund balances and flagged recurring operational costs—especially police staffing—that could require property‑tax or fee tradeoffs if transferred to the general fund.
On infrastructure, staff proposed $500,000 each for prioritized water‑ and sewer‑main replacements and noted plans to study revolving‑loan financing and rate impacts to accelerate priority replacement work without depleting reserves.
What happens next: Staff will circulate a fund‑by‑fund breakdown and a short citizen survey in advance of the council retreat; council asked for firm cost and timeline items for high‑priority streets, police property room options, and tree‑mitigation policy alternatives.
