City Reaches Agreement With Union; Finalizes FY26 Budget

With an agreement now in place with the union that represents its police officers and public works employees, the City of Glenwood is nearing the completion of its budget process for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

A final public hearing on the city’s proposed budget for FY26 will take place Tuesday, April 29, 7 p.m., at City Hall.

“The budget is balanced,” Glenwood City Administrator Mitch Kolf said Monday. “

Kolf said revenues will equal expenditures in the FY26 budget, with the exception of a one-time transfer of $37,000 from the general fund to the CBDG (Community Block Development Grant) Downtown Revitalization Project.

“It’s a planned expense,” he said.

The budget has been the focus of Kolf’s work since he began his city administrator duties in January. His first day on the job, Kolf said  he was told by Joe George, who had been serving as interim city administrator for nearly two months, that  in order for the city to have a balanced budget, spending cuts needed to be made for both the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and FY26, which begins July 1.

“Cuts to the budget actually began in December, before I started,” Kolf said. “Joe George, Malvern City Clerk and current library board member, started to let council know action needed to be taken to balance the budget. He was making recommendations to cut the budget. That was something I worked with him on in my first week. To balance the budget and to be more conservative and factoring in those union negotiations, we had to start cutting expenditures in FY25. We’ve done a couple budget amendments.”

Combined, the expenditure cuts for the current fiscal year and those being proposed for FY26 add up to around $470,000 Kolf said.

Kolf said there are multiple reasons for a shortfall in revenue that led to cuts in the FY25 and proposed FY26 budgets.

In regard to FY25, Kolf said revenues have failed to meet expectations by about $230,000.

“So, current year revenue sources were not meeting FY25 estimates, like franchise fees and EMS billing,” he said. “We also removed some one-time revenue sources that we shouldn’t expect to budget for every year, like insurance reimbursements, donations and grant awards.”

In addition to lower-than-expected revenues, Kolf said state-imposed restrictions on property taxes is also impacting the city budget.

“Property taxes are the city’s primary funding source. Nobody like’s property taxes, but that’s how we pay for city services,” he said. “The new legislation restricts property tax growth so Glenwood’s general fund property taxes can only grow by $29,000 next year. That’s not a lot to go around with rising costs and competing demands for resources, all the different departments and community groups.”

In addition to the revenue component, Kolf said there’s also “upward pressure on expenditures” in the city’s budget.

“Over the last year, before I got here, there were a few changes to the personnel budgets made without corresponding cuts,” he said. “A new full-time firefighter position was added, a part-time police position was created, a lieutenant’s position was included in the police budget and the city administrator position was budgeted at a higher pay rate, do to them (city council) knowing they were going to have to do the recruitment to fill the position.”

The union contract is another major component of the budget puzzle.

“The police and public works union contract is up this year so that created a lot of uncertainty,” Kolf said.

According to Kolf, terms of the agreement with the union will give sergeants and level 4 police officers a 7% increase in pay. Lower-level police officers and street crewmen with get 3.75% raises and non-union, full-time employees that have been employed by the city for at least a year will have their salaries go up by 2.5%.  Kolf and the deputy city clerk will not get raises this year because they’ve both been employed by the city for less than one year.

Kolf said cuts are being made in multiple departments, including the police department and library.

In an original budget draft shared with council members in March, a part-time secretarial position at the police department was going to be eliminated. That position is no longer being removed.

The police department had a proposed lieutenant position removed and the part-time police secretary is being funded by not immediately filling a vacant police officer position. Kolf said the lieutenant position would have been an upgrade for a sergeant already working for the police department and the open officer position won’t be filled until midway through the FY26 fiscal year, possibly in January.

Mayor Angie Winquist noted that one of two officer openings at the department was recently filled, but the new officer won’t be making as much as the officer he’s replacing.

“That officer had been there long enough that the salary of the new officer is lower. That’s helping fund to keep the part-time position,” she said.

A total of $68,000 is being cut from the police department budget, Kolf said. In addition to personnel, the cut also includes some supplies and services.

The removal of two full-time positions at the Glenwood Public Library were announced in Kolf’s budget draft in March. The cuts in library staffing have been controversial. More than a dozen residents have voiced their opposition to the cuts and support of the library at recent city council meetings.

Kolf said Monday the budget still includes the removal of salaries and benefits for two full-time employees at the library, but the addition of one part-time position, resulting in a total reduction of 1.5 employees. The library cuts will total $73,000. Any changes or reductions in library services, employee responsibilities and hours that result from the cuts, will be made by library staff, Kolf said.

Cuts are also being made in the general fund from other areas – Fire and EMS (nearly $20,000 for supplies, equipment and vehicle operations), Davies Amphitheater ($10,000), Parks and Recreation ($129,000 for mostly removing expenses for budgeted grants, donations and reimbursements the city doesn’t expect to receive every year), Cemetery ($6,000), Planning, Zoning, Admin and Legal ($70,000) and Streets (expenditures being moved to road use fund).

Kolf said the budget process has been challenging and difficult decisions had to be made.

“Ultimately, the city council decided to prioritize public safety through the union contract and fiscal strength and responsibility by balancing this budget with operating revenues meeting operating expenditures,” he said. “Joe (George) got it started in the right direction when he came on board.”

Winquist said she’s pleased with the proposed budget and the work that’s gone into it.

“Mitch has done an outstanding job working on this countless hours and getting us where we are so we do have a balanced budget,” she said.

The city’s tax levy rate on regular property for FY26 is set at 15.4344 (per $1,000 taxable valuation), up from 14.58583 for FY25.

Kolf noted that Glenwood’s tax levy rate for FY26 is the lowest in southwest Iowa for cities of comparable size.