Assistant village manager outlines planning, engineering budgets and consultant reliance

Dennis Del Borgo, assistant village manager, gave a high-level review of the village’s planning and engineering responsibilities and budgets, telling the board that the planning department now consolidates separate land-use budgets and leans on consultants to fill technical roles while staff positions remain vacant.

Del Borgo said the village consolidated budgets for the zoning board of appeals and the harbor and coastal zone management commission into the planning account and increased the contract-services line to pay consultant costs tied to the planner position. He listed several consultants the village uses for technical work, naming H2M Architects & Engineers, Terra Bella Land Design, AKRF, Arcadis, GEI, SLR and Pavement Management Group as supporting firms.

“We are, without [a] planner,” Del Borgo said, and noted the village also is operating without a full-time office assistant. He described operational responsibilities including site-plan reviews, environmental review compliance and coordination of flood-mitigation grants.

On money: Del Borgo said planning fees produced $21,715 in actual revenues in 2025, and the department projects about $26,000 in revenue going forward. He also told the board the engineering budget will reflect a decrease “from $4.65 to $3.60” as recorded in the meeting’s budget discussion.

Trustees pressed Del Borgo on how fee revenue is recorded. The chair asked whether building-department fees that fund engineering work ever appear in the engineering budget; Del Borgo explained that many fees are handled through applicants’ escrow accounts and therefore appear on building-department records rather than as direct engineering revenue. “It’s through escrow,” he said, noting that when an applicant is referred for review by a contract engineer, the work is drawn against that applicant’s escrow account.

Board members also debated whether to continue relying on outside consultants or hire in-house staff. Del Borgo said consultants provide flexible, project-based expertise — for example, providing traffic or hydraulic specialists on an as-needed basis — but acknowledged the village would reassess after another year of work to determine the most cost-effective approach.

The board did not take formal action on staffing during the session; trustees asked staff to continue tracking consultant costs and to consider whether some fees or permit charges should be coded differently to more clearly show the total cost of delivering planning and engineering services.