SELMA – It’s that time of year again when the city of Selma’s executive team members throw out their wildest dreams for their departments and see what sticks in the city’s annual budget.
For the 2025-26 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, those dreams are taking shape in the form of a new fire truck, security cameras, administrative personnel and expanded activities for seniors and youth. City staff presented these requests and more to the Selma City Council at a budget workshop on April 22, where they looked for direction on the council’s priorities ahead of building a full draft budget.
“Today’s workshop is just a high-level (review of) preliminary numbers that we have for you all to get an understanding from city council of your wishes (and) to get ready to propose the proposed budget mid-May, … as well as adopting it at the end of June,” Finance Director Maggie Moreno said.
Expenses coming out of the city’s general fund are proposed to increase by slightly more than 3% from the adopted 2024-25 budget, Moreno said. An overview of the general fund budget, which covers most city departments and operations outside of funds used for specific purposes, puts expenses at about $21.9 million, up from last year’s approximately $21.3 million.
Budget increases citywide generally can be attributed to higher salaries, impacts from overall inflation and one-time equipment and repair purchases; however, the budget presentation did not include a breakdown of these specifics just yet. Instead, department heads focused on the broader picture and explained the reasoning behind some of their bigger-ticket asks.
Within the Selma Fire Department’s operations budget, Fire Chief Jordan Webster presented a preliminary budget of about $4.1 million, up by nearly 6% over the 2024-25 budget of $3.88 million. Not included in that budget, however, is the growing need to make a purchase of $1.2 million for a new fire engine.
Webster said Selma currently has three fire engines in service: one from 2006, one from 2017 and one from 2019. The 2006 is past the recommended 15-year interval for replacement, and Webster said the department continues to utilize it when its other engines are undergoing maintenance.
The city could purchase a fire engine in a variety of manners, whether they pay up-front, pay when upon engine arrival or pay over installments. Webster said the main point of consideration is how the city council wants to pay for a new fire engine and when it can get started on that process. It will take at least two years after ordering a new fire engine for the city to receive it, and costs could continue to go up in that time.
Mayor Scott Robertson said the council needs to receive more information about how much money the city has before it makes that kind of decision. Acting City Manager Jerome Keene noted that the item was presented with the accompanying dollar amount so that the city can plan accordingly.
“There is a need for that fire apparatus, and we can as the mayor said find a solution or compromise on whether or not we can pay for it all up front if we have the revenue to do so, or we finance, lease it, what have you,” Keene said. “We have options to do that, but we wanted to identify it as one of the needs for the department.”
Another request came from Administrative Services Director Janie Venegas, who hopes to add two new positions to her department. The budget — which includes expenses related to the city council, city attorney, city manager, city clerk, human resources and finance department — is proposed to increase by about 13.4%, from $2.8 million in 2024-25 to just under $3.2 million in 2025-26.
Venegas said these two positions would help with human resources tasks related to the city’s insurance and risk management, as well as with payroll and city clerk duties. Councilmember Santiago Oceguera questioned if the city really needs “all these people.”
Venegas said that even prior to taking on the acting city clerk position in January, she was working 10 to 12 hours a day to fulfill her duties for the city. Structuring the department so that there is more assistance would not only alleviate her workload but would improve efficiency within the department.
Once the council receives more detail on the budget, council members said they could discuss potentially moving around other staff positions to reallocate duties without adding more full-time employees.
Throughout the workshop, council members said they were not pleased with the lack of detail presented in the preliminary budget discussion. Although it is customary for Selma to begin its budgeting process with an overview of department expenses, the council said they could not make any major decisions without knowing how much revenue the city will also be bringing in.
“These are great numbers, but we’re shooting in the dark at this point, and I want more than that,” Robertson said. “This is our job as a financial oversight committee for the city. I took four hours off from work today at a busy time, and I want to be able to use my time productively, just like everybody in the city; I think we should all be able to expect that from each other.”
City staff plan to bring forward a draft budget proposal at a special meeting later in May. The council’s regularly scheduled meeting on May 20 was cancelled because all council members will be attending a retail conference in Las Vegas.
