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Council approves midcycle budget amendments, rephases projects and applies a vacancy factor
Summary
Cotati's council approved midcycle amendments to the FY 2025–26 and 2026–27 biennial budget that rephase some capital projects, remove a trash-implementation item, incorporate grant reimbursements, and apply an estimated $547,000 vacancy factor to better align staffing costs with historical turnover.
The Cotati City Council voted June 9 to adopt midcycle amendments to the city's biennial budget for fiscal years 2025–26 and 2026–27, accepting staff's recommendations to refine revenue assumptions, rephase capital projects and adjust staffing cost estimates.
Staff told the council the overall fiscal picture is stable: FY 2025–26 is trending favorably, with general-fund revenues slightly above and expenditures below adopted amounts. For FY 2026–27 staff proposed targeted adjustments, saying some franchise and permit revenues are shifting (for example, reduced cannabis tax revenue following a local closure) while other revenues — including connection fees and modest investment earnings — improved the outlook for enterprise funds.
To preserve reserves while maintaining project readiness, staff recommended deferring several B-list capital projects (including parts of the street reconstruction program, portions of the Highway 116 intersection work and Putnam Park phase two) and removing a previously scoped trash-implementation project because staff determined the city already meets infrastructure standards for that program.
Staff also recommended organizational and budgetary classification changes: creating a separate departmental accounting line for the Ronda/Veronda Floody ranch operations to improve revenue/expense tracking, and consolidating the K9 fund back into police operations because the fund relies on transfers and has inconsistent donation streams.
On personnel budgets, staff proposed applying a vacancy-factor adjustment that recognizes historically recurring unfilled or partially filled positions (part-time student-worker schedules, intern positions and some recurring vacancies). The presenter said the estimated vacancy-factor reduction is approximately $547,000 to the general fund in the current adjustment period. "Accounting for all of these vacancies, it's approximately 547,000," the budget presenter said.
Council asked clarifying questions about water-enterprise reserves, whether unspent reserves are carried forward for specific well or tank projects, and about rental revenues at the Veterans Building. During the public-comment period a community member reiterated concerns about a pending federal lawsuit related to code enforcement and urged council to exclude those legal costs from the adopted budget until the matter is resolved.
After discussion council moved and approved the proposed amendments by voice vote. Staff will continue quarterly monitoring and will return with updated quarterly reports and any necessary adjustments.
