Council will begin finalizing the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget this week! Today and Thursday at 10am, Council will hold a Committee of the Whole (COW) Meeting where they will review and vote on recommended changes to the Budget.
Recommendations for changing the Budget come from the five Budget Links — small groups of Councilmembers that focused on specific areas of the Budget — and individual Councilmembers.
Here are the recommended changes from the Links:
- Chief Administrative Officer and Housing & Community Development Link – Allocate $20,000 for a part-time Recreation Supervisor for the Black and Williams Community Center.
- Mayor Gorton provided funding for one full-time Recreation Supervisor for the Black and Williams Center in her FY26 Proposed Budget. The Center also has one part-time Recreation Supervisor currently.
- Currently when there are gaps in supervision at the Center, Community and Resident Services Director Danielle Sanders steps in to cover shifts.
- The CAO & HACD Link says that funding for the additional part-time position will come from money the City would save by not paying Director Sanders to cover supervision shifts as she does currently.
- Environmental Quality and Public Works Link – Convert two existing part-time horticulturalist positions to full-time positions for a total cost of $99,000. The two positions would be part-time for half of the Fiscal Year, and then move to full-time positions in the last half of the Fiscal Year.
- These positions focus on landscaping maintenance for Lexington trails, corridors, and greenways. While they do some landscaping currently as part-time employees, they would pick up additional landscaping projects that the City currently hires contractors for.
- The Link says that the additional funding for these positions, once they became full-time employees, would come from money saved by terminating some landscaping contracts and having the two positions take over those duties.
- In their final meeting, the EQPW Link planned on recommending funding to purchase a Chevy Equinox for the EQPW Commissioner’s office.
- They have since decided not to recommend purchasing that vehicle.
- Finance, Economic Development, and Planning Link – $145,000 to create a new Deputy Director of Accounting position.
- This position would serve under the current Director of Accounting, Phylis Cooper. Director Cooper intends to retire in Fiscal Year 2028, and the Deputy Director would ensure a level of cohesion for the Division once Cooper leaves the office.
- The FEDP Link proposed funding this by reducing the FY26 Starting Fund Balance. The City typically budgets $1.5 million to sit in the General Fund Revenue account at the start of the Fiscal Year as a small cushion — if this position is approved, $145k would be taken from that $1.5 million.
- Social Services and Public Safety Link – $40k for an additional Crisis Response Social Worker for the Community Crisis Co-Response Team.
- The Community Crisis Co-Response Team sends Social Workers alongside Police officers, Firefighters, and EMS workers to respond to 911 calls that involve a mental health emergency.
- Funding for this position would be taken from the budgeted overtime funds for Firefighters. The Mayor’s Proposed Budget includes $2.5 million for overtime costs.
Here are the individual Councilmember requests, organized by Councilmember:…