The Common Council met 10/02/2024. Mayor Woodford spent around 25 minutes giving a presentation on the 2025 Executive Budget. This budget will be discussed in-depth and voted on by the Finance Committee on Budget Saturday which is 11/02/2024 and then voted on by the Common Council 11/13/2024.
There will be several opportunities for the public to provide feedback including a listening session conducted by the mayor on 10/16/2024 as well as public hearings held on 11/06/2024.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion which includes the PowerPoint slides for download:
In some respects, the slides speak for themselves. There were not any major changes as compared to the Executive Budget from last year.
The city had almost $147 million of new construction activity which amounted to a net new construction rate of 1.7% so the city’s levy limit was able to be increased by 1.7%. This was slightly higher than the 1.5% that the city had estimated.
He noted that there had been some changes in the number and organization of the city’s full time equivalent positions. Last year the Forestry division had been moved into the Stormwater Utility, hence the increase in Stormwater employees. Additionally, two new full time positions had been added to the Library.
The mayor was recommending a 3% merit-based pay increase for all non-union employees. All of the union employees were covered by contracts so their wage increases would move forward as spelled out in those contracts.
The 3% increase was one of the strategies the city was employing to attract talent and retain employees in a shifting employment market that saw people switch jobs much more often than older generations did. Another thing they were trying to do to attract and retain employees was to provide more flexible work options for the jobs that could be done remotely.
The city had had a good year in terms of health insurance costs and as now facing an increase of only 3% for 2025. While they had taken some steps to increase cost-savings and encourage employees to make cost-effective healthcare choices, the main reason for such a small increase was that the city had had a low claims year.
Mayor Woodford highlighted the city’s efforts to get grants, including $37 million overall for Valley Transit projects. The city was going to continue going after grants that they believed were attainable and that aligned with their priorities.
The 2025 Budget recommended $11.3 million in debt which was the smallest new debt issue that the city has had since 2015, although Mayor Woodford did note that there were some capital projects expected to need to happen in the next few years that they would need to “strategize on”. Those include an expansion of the Municipal Services Building and the replacement of Fire Station Four.
Overall, though the Mayor said that the city had gotten a handle on its overall debt and were now well below the overall debt limit of 40% that the Council had established.
The mayor is going to hold a public listening session in person in Council chambers 10/16/2024 from 3PM to 5PM.
The Budget will be discussed in depth and voted on by the Finance Committee on 11/02/2024.
A public hearing will be held 11/06/2024 at 6PM in the Council chambers.
Finally, the Budget will be voted on by the Common Council on 11/13/2024 at 6PM.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1213517&GUID=81E74286-30D8-42B6-B190-79482A705CD5
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