"It was a perfect storm. We added positions to respond to needs, we negotiated new labor standards, and there was also the expenditure to purchase the theater, and, frankly, we have some internal overtime spending controls that need to be tightened up,"
"We cannot afford to operate as we have been in the last 18 months."
"Starting in January of this year - which was six months halfway through the 2025 fiscal year - we had a new city manager and a departed finance director,"
"We weren't going to have the money, and so we needed to get a firm grasp on what the causes were of the over-budget spending in the last year."
Hayward froze hiring for vacant positions and created a budget war room to revise the fiscal year 2026 budget after a $31 million drain on reserves nearly emptied city coffers. The city identified causes including overestimated revenues, underestimated expenses, pandemic-era overhiring equivalent to 33 employees, new labor contracts, unbudgeted overtime, and the expenditure to purchase a downtown movie theater. The adopted 2026 budget had anticipated using $8.6 million in general fund reserves. Interim City Manager Jayanti Addleman led the effort to identify drivers of over-budget spending and tighten internal controls.
Read at The Mercury News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]