Greeley City Council reaches consensus on Sept. 11 public budget retreat

The Greeley City Council reached consensus Tuesday to hold a public budget retreat on Sept. 11 for a longer discussion of the city’s 2027 budget. Councilmember Deb DeBoutez proposed the additional meeting during Item 8, the council’s initiatives portion of the agenda, saying council had two more nights of budget presentations ahead and needed time to “really iron out the details” of difficult cuts.

DeBoutez said council had already seen about half of the department budget presentations and proposed a retreat at the beginning of September, landing on Friday, Sept. 11. She said the hours had not yet been determined and that the retreat would be a public meeting that would be posted.

Councilmember Johnny Olson, who was chairing that portion of the meeting, restated the initiative as a Sept. 11 budget retreat for the council and called for support. After seeing unanimous thumbs-up from the members present, Olson called it “a great initiative” and said, “There’s going to be a lot of tough discussions in that room, and I think we need to have them.”

The agenda packet’s summary for Item 8 says formal action on council initiatives is deferred until a subsequent meeting and that the mayor confirms the council’s consensus on which requests should be pursued. No separate staff report or resolution on the Sept. 11 retreat appeared in the packet.

The retreat proposal came as council continued its review of the 2027 budget. Budget materials on the July 7 agenda said council had reviewed 13 departments to date and identified about $17.1 million, or 94%, of the budget gap, leaving roughly $965,000 unresolved. The same packet said that night’s budget update covered Culture, Parks & Recreation and Communications & Engagement, with future work sessions scheduled for July 14, July 21 if needed, and July 28 for the Capital Improvement Program.