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Committee reviews FY2027 budget lines, planner vs. city administrator and vendor spending
Summary
Committee members debated hiring a city administrator or an in-house planner/project manager, reviewed payments to planning contractors, and asked staff to produce vendor reports to identify high recurring costs such as tech support and legal services.
Committee members spent a large portion of the meeting on FY2027 budget details including whether to hire a certified city planner, a project manager, or a city administrator to bring some contracted work back in-house. One member summarized the tradeoffs: many tasks historically assigned to a planner are project-management or administrative functions and could be handled by a nonprofessional project manager or a city administrator, while certain land-use reviews still require a certified planner (S3).
On contractor spending, Chair (S1) reported payments to planning contractor WWC of roughly $59,000 to date, with the year-to-date total likely approaching $80,000 once remaining work is included. Committee members said they will compare that contractor cost (which would carry benefits and retirement if performed in-house) to the cost of a full-time hire: “We offered a planner a $100,000, and they didn’t come,” a committee member said, noting market pressures and loaded salary costs (S3). The draft budget example discussed an $86,000 entry salary for a new city administrator, with roughly 80% charged to the general fund and the remainder to water and sewer depending on duties (S1).
Transparency and vendor reports were a recurring request. Several members asked staff to run a vendor report breaking out total payments to each vendor and how much each department pays so the council can identify large recurring contracts to renegotiate or evaluate for in-house alternatives. Chair (S1) said a vendor report exists and staff will run it: “There is a vendor report… I’ll do some [reporting],” the Chair said (S1).
IT and subscription costs drew attention as a likely target for savings. Members noted rising subscription fees and the recent decommissioning of an old police server — a change expected to reduce off-site backup costs — and suggested reviewing subscription-based contracts and onboarding fees before switching vendors.
Legal-services spending also came up. Members said they lack clear billing logs from the city’s legal-service providers and discussed issuing an RFQ for legal services; they also raised the cost and role of prosecutorial services for municipal court matters.
Next steps: Staff will provide a vendor-payment report, circulate the job description for the proposed city administrator position before hiring or advertising, and continue work on planning/contract comparisons so the committee can evaluate whether to bring work in-house or keep it contracted.
