Community Power amends FY25–26 budget, trims discretionary spending and adds staff

The San Diego County Community Power Board of Directors on Feb. 26 approved a midyear amendment to the FY25–26 operating budget and the FY26–30 capital investment plan that reduces discretionary spending and adds staff to support planned program expansion.

Timothy Mangalamah, director of finance, explained the amendment would reduce non‑energy discretionary spending by $4.3 million and reduce the capital improvement plan by $300,000 mainly due to contract negotiations related to the ERP platform. He said debt service declined roughly $400,000 from lower line‑of‑credit usage and projected the agency would end the fiscal year with about 229 days cash on hand, meeting the board’s 225‑day reserve target.

Chris Do, senior finance analyst, highlighted line‑item reductions including $1.2 million in general administration savings and $1.5 million in professional services savings stemming from contract negotiations. The amendment also asks to add nine FTEs to the hiring plan (four are cost recoverable), bringing total headcount targets to roughly 103 FTEs with 12 cost‑recoverable positions.

Directors asked staff to explain the need for additional positions; staff said growth in IT and infrastructure, enterprise platforms (ERP/CRM/data platform), cybersecurity, and program managers to support the roll‑out of 10 programs were the principal drivers. “An enterprise resource platform…can really help create a single system that reduces error, that increases transparency,” staff said.

The board moved, seconded and adopted the budget amendment by roll‑call vote.