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Committee hears multiple 2026 special-revenue adjustments, highlights fleet-insurance changes
Summary
The finance committee reviewed CPO 202609, which proposes several 2026 appropriations and reclassifications across special-revenue funds, including tourism and stadium accounts and significant adjustments to the fleet insurance fund tied to the city's 2023 decision to self-insure.
The administration presented CPO 202609 proposing 2026 additional appropriations for multiple special-revenue funds. City Controller Celita Green walked the committee through fund-by-fund adjustments affecting tourism, stadium accounts, council donations, alcohol and court-related funds, and the fleet insurance fund.
Notable changes include reallocation within tourism-related accounts (Southshore visitors and Gary Railcast Stadium) and creation of a council-donations budget. For fleet insurance (fund 2538), staff reduced property-insurance line items by $250,000, reduced repairs by $100,000 and added $300,000 under refunds, awards and indemnities to cover settlements; Green said the bottom line budget for the fund still decreased by $50,000 after adjustments.
Green explained the fleet-insurance policy: the city became self-insured in 2023 and the ordinance directs an annual $500,000 deposit from the general fund until a $2 million reserve is reached. "So when we became self-insured, the ordinance indicated that each year we would deposit $500,000 out of the general fund into the fleet insurance up to $2 million," Green said. Committee members asked whether the city might need to extend the $2 million target; staff said catastrophic insurance is being considered and the council would return for appropriations if reserves proved insufficient.
Committee members also discussed budgeting approaches for the tourism line items and the use of reserves to enable more summer activities. The meeting adjourned with no formal votes recorded in the provided transcript segment.
