August 18, 2026 Town Council Budget Workshop — Agenda Breakdown

Police: the deck's numbers vs. the workbook's

What it is. The Police Department's snapshot slide proposes $325,200 in FY2027 expenditures, "up $2,300 vs. FY 2026 ($322,900)," and lists four line items:

(The deck shows one "vehicle / equipment" line; the workbook keeps vehicle and equipment as separate accounts, summed here.)

The deck's FY26 figures match the workbook. Its FY27 figures do not — and the totals are about $2.4 million apart. The workbook's police department page sums to $2,735,184 budgeted for FY2026 — wages, benefits, and everything else included — and forecasts $1,813,044 for FY2027. What the slide's $325,200 covers, the deck never says, and no page in the packet reconciles it to the workbook's total.

For scale: the workbook shows the police budget growing from $1,196,560 in FY2022 to $2,735,184 in FY2026 — more than doubling in four years. Regular wages alone are budgeted at $904,641 this year.

On the revenue side, the deck says Orange County Police Liaison funding "grows to $98,000," up from $91,500. The workbook's account (001-337-2001) shows an $82,000 budget this year, $91,250 actually received so far, and a $100,000 FY2027 forecast. The three documents give three different numbers. The deck also notes FY2026 included a one-time police grant of roughly $1.05 million, with FY2027 grants budgeted at $12,000 — the workbook's federal grant line (budgeted at $990,000 this year, $0 received as of July 23) forecasts to zero.

Worth watching. The department's stated goals include pursuing appropriations for a new public safety building with emergency operations center space. No cost figure appears anywhere in the packet.

Town Clerk: a small budget, itemized

What it is. The Clerk's Office proposes $40,378 in operating expenses — the slide says this "excludes shared-cost allocations" — plus a capital range of $16,900 to $41,900 for phase 2 of a microphone upgrade and Council dais work. Key items: election/contractual costs "(if needed)" $15,000, legal advertisement $10,000, a Municode and agenda-platform migration $6,700, operating supplies $3,000, office supplies $2,000.

The modernization list is concrete: a NextRequest online public-records portal, a TextMyGov information line, YouTube video archiving of Chambers meetings, public-records and election webpages, and Certified Municipal Clerk certification.

Worth watching. This is the only department whose slide explains what its number excludes. The Clerk's budget lines live inside the Legislative department in the workbook, so there is no department total to check the $40,378 against — but itemizing $6,700 for an agenda-platform migration while other departments present five- and six-figure totals with far less line-item detail is a contrast worth noticing. The YouTube archiving item, if it happens, would give residents a permanent public record of meetings — something this site has had to reconstruct from recordings and packets.

Recreation: a 33.6% increase with two possible baselines

What it is. Recreation — Community & Youth Services proposes $194,600 for FY2027, presented as a 33.6% increase from a $145,690 base. The stated drivers include part-time wages for certified lifeguards and seasonal staff, contractual pool maintenance, fuel and maintenance for a newly acquired 18-passenger bus and 12-passenger van, a new Youth Groups Empowerment line, and expanded senior activities. Challenges listed: aging buildings, playground and equipment replacement, and pool-maintenance costs consuming "a large share of the budget."

As with Police, the workbook tells a different story at the totals line: the Recreation department (572) is budgeted at $392,904 this year and forecast at $405,923 for FY2027. What the slide's figures cover, the deck doesn't define.

Worth watching. The accomplishments slide is specific and checkable — the 18-passenger bus and 12-passenger van, new partnerships with C.E.O. and The Life Cycle Club, an inaugural "Gabby's Safety Day," a "1887 Cast & Connect" program — and the department claims increased attendance. None of it carries numbers. The one attendance figure that would matter for a budget discussion — how many residents the programs serve — is not in the packet.

Public Works: five capital projects, zero cost figures

What it is. Public Works — presented by "Utilities & Infrastructure" — is the one department with no budget slide at all. Its accomplishments slide lists water-distribution certifications, completed engineering plans, an agreement with Orange County for a stormwater project under the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, an upgrade to the remote system that monitors the water plant's alarms (SCADA), and a permit for carp to control vegetation in Lake King. Its goals slide names five capital projects to construct: a new water treatment plant, Lake Lovely sewer replacement, Vereen Drive sewer replacement and lift station, NE Kennedy sewer replacement, and drinking-water pipe improvements, phases 1 and 2. No project carries a cost figure.

Worth watching. In the workbook, this is the part of the Town's budget where the biggest gaps live. The Water & Sewer fund's contractual services account is budgeted at $50,000 this year with $685,082 recorded against it; four project accounts — three of them labeled for state-revolving-fund work — carry spending with no budget at all, a pattern flagged at the first workshop that this packet repeats unchanged. The fund-level summary forecasts Water & Sewer revenue and spending at an identical $1,646,165 for FY2027. The department that named five capital projects is the only one that brought no numbers to the budget workshop.

The workbook returns — flags intact, annotations in the margins

What it is. The workbook portion of the packet is the same July 23 comparative report presented August 11, with its per-account FY2027 forecast columns and its FY2028 column modeling the additional homestead exemption. Every specific figure flagged on the August 11 page reappears unchanged:

• The Town's TIF payment to the CRA (001-0511-511-3410): $230,000 budgeted, $1,789,254 recorded — and forecast at $232,136 for FY2027, tracking the $230,000 budget under the workbook's formula rather than the $1,789,254 recorded. The CRA's own revenue side forecasts the same payment at $242,070.
• The General Fund contingency account: $163,433 budgeted this year, still forecast to $0 for FY2027.
• Finance professional services: $5,000 budgeted, $63,718 spent, forecast at $65,000 — tracking what was spent, not what was budgeted, despite the workbook's stated formula.

The margins are worth reading. The fund-level summary page carries typed annotations:

• The CRA revenue and expenditure rows are highlighted red with the note "not presenting." The CRA's forecast shows spending of $1,762,443 against revenue of $1,415,981 — a gap of about $346,000 — and on the account-detail pages, the forecast cells for the CRA's tax and TIF-payment rows are highlighted red as well.
• The homestead-exemption block is annotated "EXPECTING $151,000 loss in revenue" — consistent with the roughly $151,000 impact described at the first workshop.

Worth watching. The FY2027 forecast shows General Fund revenue and spending at an identical $5,802,969 — a balanced budget to the dollar, printed as a surplus of "0.0," after five straight years of budgeted shortfalls ending in this year's $175,588. The workbook describes its forecast as formula-driven from account-level growth rates, and the packet does not say whether anything was adjusted to land the two sides on the same figure. Under the homestead scenario, the same forecast shows a $151,000 deficit. Property tax is forecast at $2,991,405 for FY2027 — up about 8% from this year's $2,771,023 budget — but a forecast column is not a millage decision; the rate itself belongs to the fall hearing process.