Residents press finance committee over missing line‑by‑line 2026 budget documents

Members of the public and committee members questioned the Finance Committee Dec. 18 about whether council voted to adopt the 2026 budget without having received the auditor's detailed "expense budget worksheet" that shows line-by-line comparisons between prior years and the proposed year.

Public commenter Kurt Fankhauser asked whether the detailed report had been provided to the finance committee before the council vote and said he had asked for the spreadsheet. "If you look at the actual legislation, it's just like the... it doesn't have the full detail," Fankhauser said. He urged staff to put the detailed reports on Documents on Demand so the public can review them without filing public-records requests.

A finance staff member told the committee the accounting year had not yet been created in the system and that once it is, the Excel spreadsheet could be uploaded and the expense worksheet run. "I was planning on doing it tomorrow," the staff member said, offering to provide the spreadsheet by email.

Committee members said they wanted to see detailed line-item reports to check for changes to department budgets; staff said there had been no reductions to safety services in the versions discussed. The committee also tabled a set of minutes that members said contained scrivener errors and incorrect vote notations and asked that corrected minutes be prepared before approval.

The discussion ended with staff agreeing to provide the Excel spreadsheet and to run the expense worksheet once the year is set up in the accounting system so the finance committee and the public can review the line-by-line details.