New Findlay council members take deep dive into budget

FINDLAY — As Findlay gets ready to close the books on its 2025 operating budget, council members are taking a closer look at the numbers. Findlay City Council's Finance Committee held its first detailed review of city budget performance Tuesday, signaling a shift toward increased oversight after earlier criticism of the city's budget process. The committee, chaired by Councilman BJ Preston, R‑2, includes Dan DeArment, R‑4, L. Reed Needles, R-at-large, Rodney Phillips, R‑6, and Dan DeLong, R‑7. It is responsible for reviewing city spending plans and overseeing investments. During the meeting, Deputy Auditor Ginger Sampson provided council members with an early snapshot of the city's actual financial performance for 2025 compared to the budget. She said general fund revenues beat expectations last year, but overall spending still exceeded revenues by about $4.5 million. She said the city ended the year with an adjusted general fund cash balance of about $22 million, minus outstanding obligations that have not yet been paid. Previously reported figures show the city's carryover cash balance has dropped from $30.5 million in 2024. Auditor Jim Staschiak has described the drop as "significant" and indicative of a "structural imbalance" in the budget, leaving the city dependent on its carryover balances to balance the books. However, Mayor Christina Muryn has described the spend-down of the city's cash carryovers as intentional. She said it has allowed Findlay to pay cash for big-ticket items like a $1.6 million fire truck, pay more than $4 million for the design of the proposed Downtown Recreation Area and set aside $4.66 million for flood mitigation, all without borrowing. At council's first meeting of the year, held on Jan. 6, several members criticized the city's budget process, saying they were being asked to approve a deficit budget without clear, timely information on revenues or detailed spending. Council members argued that committing to expenses before year‑end results are known makes it difficult to act as responsible stewards and to explain the budget to the public. In January, council voted 8-2 to adopt a $130 million spending plan, which represents the total budget across all funds, including water and sewer operations, airport, parking, capital improvements and restricted accounts such as flood mitigation. Phillips and DeLong voted against adopting the budget. By contrast, the proposed $41.2 million operating budget refers only to the General Fund, which covers day-to-day services like police, fire, streets and administration. The overall budget includes money earmarked for specific purposes. The General Fund is where council has the most discretion. For 2026, the city projects $36.2 million in revenue against $42.1 million in general fund expenses, leaving a $5.9 million shortfall. Another $5.5 million deficit is forecast for 2027. Findlay has a history of adopting deficit operating budgets each year and then working to manage its way back to a balanced budget. In 2025, city departments returned about $2.3 million in unspent appropriations to the General Fund. On Tuesday, the Finance Committee outlined plans to revamp the budget process. Members emphasized using the committee for regular, ongoing financial check‑ins rather than one‑time debates at budget adoption, with monthly meetings, clearer revenue updates, and earlier scrutiny of departmental budgets, capital plans and unbudgeted requests.