The Longmont City Council plans to add 18 new full-time equivalent positions to the city’s employee roster next year, just one aspect of a proposed $469.6 million operating budget the group discussed during its regular session Tuesday night.
Over the past several weeks, the City Council has listened to numerous financial presentations and is expected to finalize and formally adopt next year’s 657-page budget, which is available for public inspection on the city’s website, in October.
If the City Council approves the budget and adds 18 new full-time equivalent jobs, the Longmont city government’s total number of full-time equivalent budgeted positions will be just over 1,161. In 2025, there will be 3.35 new full-time equivalent positions in the water fund, 3.3 in the open space fund, 3 in the parks & greenway fund, 2.5 in the streets fund, 2.3 in the sewer fund, 1.3 in the storm drainage fund, 1 in the electric & broadband fund, 1 in the affordable housing fund and 0.25 in the sustainability fund. Some full-time equivalent positions are funded by more than one fund such as the water and sewer funds.
At the same time, six full-time public safety positions — two firefighters, two police officers, one paramedic and one communications shift supervisor — have been eliminated from next year’s public safety fund. All six of those public safety positions are either already vacant or will be soon, meaning no current employees will lose their jobs as a result of the reductions, city officials have said.
Due to more than $2 million of new ongoing expenses in the public safety fund and less than $1 million of new ongoing revenue, city workers said they would need to make reductions to base ongoing expenses in that specific fund.
On Tuesday, the results of a 2024 employee satisfaction survey were also presented to the City Council. Some 533 workers took the survey. More than 90 percent of survey respondents indicated that they were either extremely satisfied, somewhat satisfied or satisfied with the city government as an employer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top issues for employees were compensation, work-life balance and flexibility as well as their relationships with their supervisors and work teams. Longmont Mayor Joan Peck said she was pleased with the positive survey results, calling them “pretty good percentages.”
In other news, the City Council voted 5 to 2 to officially endorse a November ballot measure that, if approved, would allow the Regional Transportation District to continue to collect, retain and spend all of the revenue it receives without regard to limitations set forth in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Councilmembers Diane Crist and Marcia Martin cast the two “no” votes.
Approved by voters in 1992, TABOR limits the amount of revenue Colorado governments can retain and spend. It also requires voter approval for tax increases. In 1999, voters exempted RTD from TABOR’s limitations through the period required to pay certain bond debt. That bond debt is expected to be paid off in November.