Special Committee on Ways and Means | Regular Meeting | May 5th, 2026 | 5:30pm
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Preliminary Motions
The meeting was called to order by Chair Miguel Sanchez, followed by a roll call confirming the presence of a quorum. The committee then voted to waive the readings of items one through six and entered Exhibit 13 into the record.
Department of Purchasing Budget Discussion
The committee reviewed the proposed FY 2027 budget for the Department of Purchasing, which totals $717,812. Discussions focused on procurement capacity for the school district, efforts to increase WMBE/MBE contracts, and translating bids into Spanish to improve accessibility.
Parks Department Budget Discussion
The committee discussed the Parks Department budget, including forestry services, neighborhood parks, and the North Burial Ground operations. Key topics included addressing the forestry backlog, funding for an additional zookeeper, and community engagement initiatives.
Recreation Department Budget Discussion
The committee reviewed the Recreation Department's budget and summer programming plans with the newly appointed director. Discussions centered on summer camp enrollment, pool and splash pad operations, senior swim programs, staff safety training, and HVAC upgrades at various recreation centers.
Motion to Continue and Adjournment
The committee voted on a motion to continue items one through six to a future meeting. The meeting was subsequently adjourned following the vote.
Speaker 0
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Afternoon, early evening, everyone. My name is Miguel Sanchez. I'm calling the special committee ways and means to order.
Speaker 1
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Hello, everyone. You can sit here.
Speaker 0
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Won't call, please.
Speaker 2
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Chair Sanchez.
Speaker 0
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Present.
Speaker 2
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Vice Chairman Taylor. Absent. Councilor Andrew Brock. Present. Councilwoman Graves.
Speaker 2
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Present. Councilwoman Peterson is absent.
Speaker 3
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We have three present and two absent. We have four.
Speaker 0
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Awesome. I know clerks. Thank you all for your service.
Speaker 3
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Thank you so noted.
Speaker 0
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We will take a motion to waive the readings of items one through six.
Speaker 4
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So moved. Moved.
Speaker 0
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Motion made by councilwoman Inner Law, second by councilwoman Graves. All those in favor? Aye. Any nays? The ayes have it.
Speaker 0
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Alrighty, Crystal. We're ready, Crystal. Mr.
Speaker 2
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Chair, do you want to answer this as an exhibit?
Speaker 0
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Yes, we're not ready. Just give us two seconds. Motion to enter exhibit 13 to the record.
Speaker 2
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So, I'll to second.
Speaker 0
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Motion made by Councilwoman Crave, seconded by Councilwoman Inouye. All those in favor? Aye. Any nays? Ayes have it.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. We're ready now.
Speaker 2
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Wonderful. Thank you, chair. The fiscal year proposed budget for the department purchasing for fiscal year twenty twenty seven is $717,812. This represents a $31,333 decrease from the fiscal year twenty twenty six adopted budget. The bulk of this decrease is in the benefits category, and that has to do with the change in how we've allocated the active medical costs across groups.
Speaker 2
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And so we tried to chew it up to be more indicative of the actual expenditures. There's no changes in the actual or budgeted FTE. Fiscal year twenty twenty six salaries are budgeted $398,999. We have a projected cost of an increase of 10,972. Debt increases of $3,109.
Speaker 2
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For proposed fiscal twenty twenty seven, salaries of $413,161. Additionally, at no cost, the department is title of compensation of the unfunded title formerly known as the Purchasing Health Strategy Manager, which was compensated out of A12. They would like to change the title to procurement to the school district. We're acknowledging
Speaker 0
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capacity to continue to procure their living services without experiencing delays in that process or any sort
Speaker 2
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of operational hindrances to as those changes.
Speaker 0
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Just a there's no funding tied to that position?
Speaker 2
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There's no funding tied to the position now because we've not resumed local control. We don't necessarily want to hire someone and then not have any work for them to do, but we do want to set the precedent and the ability to hire someone should the school district return to the city and funding become identified. Again, they've made tremendous strides in shortening their cycle times. And one of the things we've been really trying to figure out is the best way we can ensure that they're not having delays in procurement by bringing them back. Their purchasing is about is equal to ours.
Speaker 2
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So we're talking double the volume that we're typically seeing in Board of Contract and Supply. Particularly in spring when they're looking at doing curriculum or really getting ready for the next fiscal year, there's a tremendous amount of capacity. I mean, I can remember when we were with the school district, board of contract required a separate table just for all of their bids. So it's it's going to be a lot of work that comes through us. We're still not sure of timing.
Speaker 2
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We're still not sure what the final results will be, but we do only open these ordinances up once a year. And so we wanted to make sure that if this does happen midyear, we have the ability to be enrolled.
Speaker 0
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What if like it's announced next month that the schools are coming back next year, what?
Speaker 2
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So I think we would have to sit down and have a really frank conversation about what that looks like. I do think that we would be recommending for finding a place in front of this position.
Speaker 3
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The to the right.
Speaker 2
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Okay. Correct. Yeah. They were split in this budget cycle. And by the time I caught that, we had already had the calendar pretty locked in.
Speaker 2
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And so I felt it would make sense to just continue with purchasing and then get a proper property on a separate night.
Speaker 3
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So are we keeping that potential position off the org chart for now, but it would be underneath director Dorado? Correct. Okay.
Speaker 4
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Thank you. Yeah. Mhmm. Wonderful.
Speaker 2
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Their department has a very modest service from supply budget. It's in growth in the fixed and discretionary costs. At the first discretionary cost is $29,000 in fees not classified. This is a reduction of $5,900 from the fiscal year twenty twenty to change in parking contract, so there's no changes or reductions in translation funding for fiscal year twenty twenty seven. Dues and subscriptions have been level funded at $1,100 There's a modest increase to professional development, again, help train up and bring capacity into staffing within this department.
Speaker 2
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And under the supplies category, office supplies and copier latest maintenance have been unchanged and are supported by historical
Speaker 5
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We reviewed revised the we updated the job description to reflect that particular goal supporting the schools. That's in addition to this, there are things that we have been working together with the state of Horizon. We're trying to implement the procurement system and that also requires capacity and particularly a person educated to support the transitions and with the school department. So that's one of the things that we've been working on. We've been working together with the procurement team of the school department.
Speaker 5
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Department, we set up already monthly meetings to understand the processes, to find opportunities in which we can remove inefficiencies or redundancies in the process process and to better understand how they procure and also support them to better understand what the process in the city is.
Speaker 0
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Awesome. When did you start those meetings?
Speaker 5
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We started those meetings I think February. Yeah.
Speaker 2
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And I'll say that we've been cooperatively working with school procurement since we did a final application last year. It was at
Speaker 5
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the end of October, beginning of November. So since then we've been working with them more closely to the board. Cool,
Speaker 0
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awesome. Before we continue, Madam Clerk, can you let the record reflect that Councilor Peterson has joined us?
Speaker 2
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So noted. Thank you.
Speaker 0
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Any, are all set? Any questions, committee members? Director, there any ongoing efforts in your department to increase WMB and MBE contracts. Can you speak on that if it relates to you at all?
Speaker 5
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Right. So this is something that we work in coordination with the Department of Economic Development, particularly our coordinator for the MBEs, WBEEs. So on our end, what we do, we are in the purchasing agents actually, they do the reach out. They look at who have the certification to the state and then they reach out when there's an opportunity for them depending on the type of contract. Currently, for instance, we're working on we're expecting to have our own contract for construction renovation.
Speaker 5
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So there are different trades. And I we think that that's a great opportunity bring more vendors with classification and support the rules of the ordinance. What we've been doing. We on our end also, what we do is we track how much goes like when it comes to POs, we're currently tracking who has which vendors have the vendor. The same thing we do when it comes to
Speaker 0
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the order terms and supply, we track
Speaker 5
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who gets a contract and what percentage of the contract goes to vendors with the certification. In some cases, it's more common to see SOPS but in some cases, and this is really sort of like inspiring to see ranking factors actually have justification and they get a free contract. So that's what we do regarding that role.