City manager and budget director report strong public response to FY27 survey; proposed budget due July 28

The Corpus Christi City Council received a presentation on the city's FY27 budget engagement process on Tuesday, where City Manager Peter Zanoni and Amy Rodriguez, director of management and budget, said the city had intentionally expanded outreach to get early public input.

Rodriguez said the online survey, launched May 12 and open through June 8 in English and Spanish, returned 15,404 responses, which staff said exceeded the threshold the city set for a high-confidence sample. The eight-question survey asked respondents to prioritize general-fund services; Rodriguez said the top priorities were fire and EMS (12.7 percent), residential street maintenance (12.3 percent) and police services (11.4 percent). Parking enforcement, pools and aquatics, and economic development ranked near the bottom of the list.

Rodriguez also summarized three community input sessions held June 29, July 1 and July 8, which staff estimated had an average in-person attendance of about 13 people and roughly 174 online views each. Topics that recurred across sessions included libraries, parks and amenities, streets and sidewalks, stormwater, water-security issues, animal-care services and services for people experiencing homelessness.

Zanoni said the manager's proposed budget will be presented to council on July 28, followed by additional community engagement in August and the first and second readings in September (scheduled for Sept. 1 and Sept. 8). Rodriguez said the full survey report will be posted on the budget development website by midweek and that staff will provide council a final package before the July presentation.

Councilmembers pressed staff on the timing and neighborhood reach of the outreach. Councilwoman Sylvia Campos and Councilwoman Kaelin Paxton both said some districts received little or no in-person outreach; Campos asked whether code enforcement and abatement concerns were reflected in the survey and Rodriguez confirmed they were included and had appeared in the input sessions. Zanoni and staff committed to incorporate code enforcement options into the FY27 balanced budget discussion and to present a funding recommendation for sidewalks at an upcoming meeting.

The city manager and budget office said community input gathered now will be used to shape the city manager's proposed FY27 budget, but emphasized that council has the authority to revise the proposal during workshops and hearings this summer and fall. The council did not take any action on the item at Tuesday's meeting; the proposed budget will be the subject of the next staff presentation on July 28.