Page 71 - CityofSouthlakeFY26AdoptedBudget

Using Council’s direction at this work session, staff begins working on their departmental work plans
for the upcoming fiscal year. The initiatives in these plans determine what budgetary requests are
necessary to meet service level needs. Once each department has finalized its own plan, and it has
been approved by the City Manager, staff prepares their departmental budget requests which are also
submitted to and reviewed by the City Manager. For more information about the City’s organizational
structure, see the Strategic Direction section of this book.

The Charter of the City of Southlake mandates that a proposed budget be filed by the City Manager Budget Basics
with the City Secretary’s Office no later than August 15th for the new fiscal year beginning October 1.
Following filing, the City Council begins their review leading up to budget adoption in September.

When filed with the City Secretary’s Office on August 15th, the budget presents in summary form the
revenues and expenditures from each of the City’s funds. From there it is discussed during City Council
work sessions and then formally presented by staff during public hearings at regularly scheduled City
Council meetings.

How the Budget is Amended

The City of Southlake Charter Sections 9.20 through 9.25 defines the process for budget amendments
(see Appendix). To meet these Charter requirements, budget amendment requests, if necessary, are
evaluated and processed each year and presented to City Council for review and approval.

Citizen Input and Communication
The process leading to the budget adoption is participatory and includes a communications plan that
encourages input from citizens, boards and commissions, City departments, and the City Council.

The communications plan includes:
- Public hearings;
- Live online broadcasts of City Council work sessions, meetings and public hearings;
- Presentations to City boards and commissions;
- Access to the Proposed and Adopted budgets through the Southlake Public Library system; and,
- Internet access to all budget documents and videos of public meetings at www.CityofSouthlake.com.

In addition to communication provided during the budget process, the budget is developed using
feedback from the City’s biennial Citizen Satisfaction Survey. In this survey residents tell the City what
they think are the most important services and what they are most satisfied with. Using this information,
the budget is developed to ensure that these service priorities are continually met. Figure 2 shows the
services rated with the highest importance in the last survey, conducted in October 2023. This survey
data was used to inform budget recommendations for FY 2026.

FY 2026 City of Southlake | Budget Book 71