Although there were some caveats and unanswered questions, the Lawrence Common Council voted 8-1 during a Sept. 25 Committee of the Whole meeting to forward the proposed City of Lawrence 2025 budget to the Oct. 16 regular council meeting for approval.
Councilor Rick Wells (D-District 2) was the only no vote.
The budget was presented during the council’s regular Sept. 18 meeting and was referred to the committee for review. The committee also reviewed proposed budget transfers between funds and recommended approval, but didn’t act on proposals related to salary increases for city staff and elected officials.
An ordinance that calls for appropriating funds from city reserves to balance the budget was not reviewed, although it was on the committee agenda. According to that proposal, the city needs $237,500 for “other services and charges” in the 2024 General Fund; and $200,000 to cover pensions for retired city employees.
Some questions regarding the 2025 spending plan that council members asked Controller Humphrey Nagila during the committee meeting related to blank spaces in the proposed budget for certain expenses, such as capital improvement projects and fuel for police vehicles. Nagila told the council that those items will be paid through what remains of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, which had to be encumbered by the end of 2024 but could be spent through the end of 2025, and through General Obligation bonds.
Those expenses will go back to the general fund in 2026.
Councilor Lisa Chavis (D-at-large) said she needs more details.
“In order for us to have a full picture of how much money, by fund, we need to see the numbers behind the dashes,” she said. “It doesn’t mean anything to us if we don’t have the numbers. I understand that’s where you’re taking the money from, but I would request an accounting of the dashes and where it’s coming from, whether the GO bond or the ARPA funds.”
Nagila said he would send that information to the council in an email by Sept. 27. Current submitted a public records request for copies of any emails Nagila sent to the council answering questions raised during the Sept. 25 meeting. At deadline for this news report, the city had not provided the emails.
Other concerns raised by council members included reduced projected overtime costs for the police and fire departments. Nagila said the budget assumes the departments will be fully staffed in 2025. If that doesn’t happen and they need more overtime, he said he would come back to the council for an additional appropriation.
Chavis said she preferred having adequate overtime budgeted up front.
“I don’t want you to have to come back to us, because really that should not be part of our plan,” she said. “I mean, we know that we occasionally have to do it, right? But it should not be a planned thing. If they don’t have enough overtime budgeted in 2025, we need to figure out how to right-size that.”
The city’s police and fire chiefs told the committee that they felt the budgeted overtime would be adequate.
The city’s budget can be viewed online at cityoflawrence.org/financial/2025/2025-proposed-budget.
The Lawrence Common Council’s next regular meeting is 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at Lawrence Government Center, 9001 E. 59th St.
