Council adopts 2026–27 budget, directs electronic financial exports and monthly budget-to-actual reports

The Walled Lake City Council adopted the operating and capital budget for fiscal 2026–27 on June 16 and simultaneously took steps to improve financial transparency by ordering ongoing electronic exports and monthly variance reporting.

Council debate focused on personnel allocation percentages and how full-time-equivalents (FTEs) and payroll are apportioned across funds and general-ledger accounts. Councilmember (name given in transcript as Russ) said he could not reconcile some FTE counts and requested a clear position-by-position chart showing percent allocations to funds. Finance staff agreed to provide clarifying material and to print monthly budget-to-actual reports going forward.

To improve recurring access to data, council instructed staff to make electronic exports of revenues, expenditures and payroll available in machine-readable formats (CSV or Excel) going back several years and on an ongoing monthly basis. The motion specifies that the files be placed in a shared directory so council members can run independent charts and analyses; it passed on a roll call vote.

City Manager Dennis and finance staff said auditors provide an annual, independent audit (the city’s audits have historically been unqualified) and that the monthly reports will supplement those end-of-year findings. Council members emphasized that these reports are for read-only review by council, not for direct editing of city financial systems.

Next steps: Finance staff will produce a sample budget-to-actual report and a multi-year electronic export for council review; staff will also prepare a position allocation chart addressing FTE and percent-allocation questions.