Agenda Packets - City Council - work session 7/28/2025

Home Browse Search

Significant changes within each department in the General Fund budget are as follows: • Administration — staff is seeking to revise the employee recognition policy in the Employee Handbook to incorporate additional items. Employee Handbook updates will be brought to Council after union negotiations are completed. • Election — 2026 is an election year, which will include voting for state governor and two City Council member positions. • Communications — the department was created within the General Fund in 2024. This allowed for better tracking of expenditures related to newsletters, social media, and other communication related costs. For 2025 budget, a Communications Specialist was hired. For 2026 budget, increases are based on true costs seen in YTD 2025 numbers. • Finance — audit service is moved back from the Central Services department in the General Fund. • Central Services — facilities related expenditures moved to the Facilities Services Fund and distributed into each respective department based on square footage of each maintained area and number of employees within each department. Audit service was moved back to the Finance department. • Police — budget includes addition for an additional 0.5 cadet. Police software licensing is budgeted to accurately reflect police specific subscriptions and software. • Fire — a new joint power agreement fire department is currently being negotiated between the City of Orono and the City of Long Lake. • Community Development — budget includes preparation for the City's comprehensive plan with future years 2027-2029 to cover the drafting, creation, and finalization of the plan. • Public Works — Streets — based on review of the City's tree management plan, there is a need for significant increase for tree removal, maintenance and replacement. Contracted street maintenance also increased based on an average of the past three-year actuals. • Public Works — Spring Park — budget includes 1.5 FTE wage, which also sees the addition of service for Parks maintenance. • Parks — budget includes tree maintenance, removal and replacement needed at parks. • Special Projects — Contingencies — transfers to the Equipment Improvement Outlay fund, Facilities Fund and IT Service Fund are budgeted based on the Capital Improvement Plan on items that are General Fund related. The Internal Service Fund budgets are included, which affect each respective department in the General Fund and Enterprise Funds. • Fleet Service Fund — o Revenue comes from other departments that the Fleet department service in terms of the maintenance of City vehicles and equipment. Current year revenue/charge to other department was planned to gradually increase over the years and eventually make up for the short -falls in the beginning years of the fund (2021- 2025). o The expenditure increases for 2026 is attributable to the IT Service and Facilities Service Funds along with an increase in vehicle equipment and parts. • Facility Service Fund — the fund was created in 2025 for the 2026 budget year. 2026 Budget Memo 07/28/2025 — Page 2 4