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Guadalupe staff presents balanced preliminary water and wastewater enterprise budgets; highlights Pioneer Lift Station and AMI phase two
Summary
At the June 23 workshop, staff said the preliminary FY 2026-27 enterprise budgets for water and wastewater are balanced, highlighted a $929,000 state water cost, an AMI phase two project, and the Pioneer Lift Station CIP (partially funded by an IRWM grant), and noted an upcoming rate study and reallocation of salaries into enterprise funds for transparency.
City financial staff presented the City of Guadalupe's preliminary enterprise fund draft budgets for fiscal year 2026-27 at a June 23 workshop and described the two enterprise funds (water and wastewater) as balanced on a preliminary, unaudited basis.
Mr. Martinez summarized the assumptions behind the draft budgets, saying the water operating fund shows approximately $2.9 million in revenues and the wastewater operating fund about $2.5 million. He said the city used conservative forecasts: a 13% increase in residential water usage revenue in the water fund, flat service revenues, and a 1% increase for wastewater service charges. Martinez said the largest single expense in the water fund is the cost of purchased state water, which the budget lists at $929,000.
Capital projects and consultant work figure prominently in the draft: Martinez identified AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) phase two in the water CIP and the Pioneer Lift Station as the largest wastewater CIP item. He said the Pioneer Lift Station project has funding that includes an IRWM grant expected to cover about $900,000 of the total and that budget accounting required a transfer entry of roughly $777,000 that in practice includes about $702,000 earmarked for the Pioneer Lift Station and related project pieces.
Staff said the city is reallocating some personnel costs into the enterprise funds (for example, maintenance crews and finance staff time tied to utility billing) to better align costs with the services that create them and to increase transparency (rather than recording broad transfers). Martinez also noted the city plans a rate study in the coming fiscal year; timing and effective dates for any rate changes will be determined after the consultant updates and the study is completed, and any rate changes would be prospective.
Council members asked questions about the salary increases and reallocation; staff explained the increases reflect work already being performed that will now be budgeted inside the enterprise funds (monthly processing rather than an annual transfer), and said a budget adjustment will be brought forward as needed when consultant work on rates is complete. The workshop included spreadsheets and multi-year trend tables showing prior-year surpluses and deficits, and staff recommended continued monitoring while proceeding with conservative assumptions.
