Commission Discussion and/or Action regarding a Budget Transfer for the City Commission Office. City Manager Mark Lubelski. Lourdes Lawrence, Administrative Services Manager. 

This request is being brought forward following the City Commission direction that any necessary Budget Transfers for the City Commission Office budget be formally presented at a City Commission Meeting for review and approval. The Budget for the City Commission Office needs to be adjusted at this time in order to support current and anticipated expenditures for the email software, Constant Contact, which is an operating expense. 

For Fiscal Year 2025/2026, the Subscriptions and Memberships account was budgeted at $51,420.00, which includes $8,000.00 budgeted for the Mayor and City Commissioners' Constant Contact subscriptions.  Constant Contact is an email software that permits users to send mass emails out to thousands of people at any given time. This service is especially useful for our Mayor and Commissioners to remain in contact with our community to share important information and messages.

The cost for the Constant Contact service for the Mayor and each individual City Commissioner is based upon the number of email addresses included on each list. The $8,000.00 that was originally budgeted in 2025 was insufficient for the service required for the Mayor and two Commissioners who were using the service. Since that time, another City Commissioner began using the service. In addition, the number of email addresses has also increased for at least one of the Commissioners, leading to a cost increase for that subscription. For these reasons, the current cost for the Constant Contact subscriptions exceeds the remaining balance in the budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. Based upon the current email lists at this time and the projected usage, an additional $4,280.00 is required to fund the remaining six months of service in FY 2026 for the Constant Contact subscriptions.

Funding is available to transfer from the City Commission Office Salary Line Item 001.01.10.511.501201, which has salary savings due to the vacancy of the Citizen Service Specialist II position. Authorization is requested to proceed with a Budget Transfer in the amount of $4,280.00 from the Salary line item account to the Subscriptions and Memberships line item account 001.01.10.511.505401. 

The requested Budget Transfer will ensure continuity of Constant Contact email messaging services without impacting the overall City Commission Office budget, as we are proposing to utilize existing salary savings.