Meeting Information

• Date: September 10, 2024
• Title: Budget Committee Meeting
• Present: Aisha Chughtai (Chair), Elliot Payne, Robin Wonsley, Michael Rainville, LaTrisha Vetaw, Jeremiah Ellison, Jamal Osman, Katie Cashman, Jason Chavez, Aurin Chowdhury, Emily Koski
• Absent: Andrea Jenkins, Linea Palmisano (joined later)
• Guests: Chief Financial Officer, Human Resources Director Nikki Odom, City Assessor Rebecca Malmquist
• Votes: 0

Highlights

• Presentation of the 2025-2026 budget for the Finance and Property Services Department
• Discussion of the Human Resources Department’s 2025-2026 budget, including new positions and compensation studies
• Presentation of the Assessing Department’s 2025-2026 budget, including challenges with tax court litigation
• Update on the city’s credit rating upgrade to AAA
• Overview of the upcoming Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation

Discussion

Finance and Property Services Department Budget

The Chief Financial Officer presented the 2025-2026 budget for the Finance and Property Services Department. Key points included:

• The department has 291 positions budgeted in the Mayor’s recommended budget.
• The city’s credit rating was upgraded to AAA last year, the first time since 2016.
• The department is participating in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project to replace the current COMET system.
• Investment earnings have increased, reducing the needed property tax levy.
• Two new budget proposals were presented for Property Services: a Mobile Security Team and custodial staffing for the new First Precinct building.

Council members asked questions about vacancy rates, hiring plans, and the significant drop in the Executive and Administration budget from 2024 to 2025. The CFO explained that the drop was due to the reallocation of public safety aid to buy down the levy.

Human Resources Department Budget

Human Resources Director Nikki Odom presented the department’s 2025-2026 budget. Key points included:

• The department has implemented two new Centers of Excellence: Talent Acquisition and HR Investigations.
• There has been a significant increase (38%) in HR investigations, which is seen as positive due to increased trust in the process.
• The department is requesting an additional FTE for the Labor Relations team due to increased workload and complexity of cases.
• The implementation of a new Human Capital Management system as part of the ERP project was discussed.

Council President Payne asked about the outcomes of HR investigations:

“I think that there is an investigation kind of justice component, well being component that is all intertwined that makes for some pretty significant HR challenges for us. So I think at minimum it would be helpful for us to at least have some aggregate data what the outcomes of those investigations are and what the scale of the amount of investigations are.”

The committee requested follow-up information on aggregate data related to HR investigations.

Assessing Department Budget

City Assessor Rebecca Malmquist presented the department’s 2025-2026 budget. Key points included:

• The department is facing challenges with increased tax court litigation and aggressive scheduling by tax court judges.
• The department will be significantly over budget in 2024 due to a compensation study and back pay for employees.
• There is a continued increase in tax court appeals, particularly for downtown office buildings.
• The department is working on compiling statistical data on tax appeals for the budget team to help predict risk.

Council members asked questions about the compensation study and its impact on the budget. The City Assessor explained that the study resulted in nearly the entire department receiving increases, with almost two years of back pay being distributed in 2024.

Public Comments

There were no public comments during this meeting.