City of Oxnard releases proposed FY 2026–27 budget; staff recommends six resolutions

Thomas Lewis, assistant chief financial officer for budget, presented the City of Oxnard’s proposed FY 2026–27 operating and capital improvement budgets and recommended that the City Council adopt six resolutions covering the budget, staffing authorizations, classification and salary schedules, financial management policies, an appropriation limit and a master fee schedule. "This is an item for City Council for June 16th, 2026 titled FY26 to 27 proposed annual budget," Lewis said at the opening of his presentation.

Lewis said the citywide proposed expenditure budget is approximately $655 million while proposed revenues are about $610 million; he said the difference would be funded from existing available fund balances in the respective funds. "The difference between proposed expenditures and proposed revenue will be funded by existing available fund balance in their respective funds," he said.

Staff highlighted a number of supplemental allocations added since the June 1 public hearing, including $110,000 for recreation temporary labor, $100,000 for youth development programs, $30,000 for the Oxnard Arts Academy, $60,000 for police psychologist services, $100,000 for electronic citation printers for the police department and $30,000 for code compliance overtime.

On the capital side, Lewis detailed how CIP costs are split between Measure O and the general fund: neighborhood street resurfacing is shown at $4.2 million from the general fund and $3.9 million from Measure O; citywide alley resurfacing at $4.3 million from Measure O; and arterial street resurfacing at $4.4 million from the general fund.

For the general fund, Lewis reported proposed revenues of $247 million, an increase of $3.4 million from the prior year driven mainly by a projected 3% rise in sales tax (about $3.2 million), and noted several offsetting decreases in franchise taxes and miscellaneous income. He reported overall departmental expenditures of $257 million (about 6% higher than last year) and, after adjusting for $12 million in ongoing funding recommendations, said the proposed general fund expenditure budget would be $245 million—about $1.9 million below ongoing general fund revenues of $247 million.

Lewis reviewed individual fund projections: the water funds show FY26–27 revenues of $76.5 million and expenditures of $78.1 million with $10.3 million appropriated for water CIP, producing a planned $1.6 million use of fund balance for the year; wastewater funds project $46.7 million in revenues and $49.3 million in expenditures with SRF loan proceeds noted as a material factor in recent CIP activity; the Environmental Resources Fund is projected to use $2.2 million of fund balance; and golf funds are projected to add $0.7 million to their balance.

Lewis also summarized staffing and vacancy information under California Assembly Bill 2561 (Government Code 3502.3), saying the city’s overall vacancy rate was 9.35% as of May 1, 2026, with 140.25 vacant positions and 45 active job postings. He added that in the prior fiscal year the city hired 89 employees, promoted 110 staff and experienced 91 separations.

The presentation closed with Lewis’s restatement of the recommendation that the council adopt the six resolutions as presented in the staff packet. The transcript records the recommendation but does not include a council vote or formal action on the resolutions.