Antioch Looks to Immediately Cut $10.4 Million From Budget

On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council will beginning conversations on immediately cutting $10.4 million from its budget. Cuts could reach as high as $15.7 million.

The council, who had hosted a series of budget study sessions the past few months appear ready to begin directing staff to prepare for cuts – including review of 5 models which includes position freezes, re-allocating staff, eliminating positions, furloughs, budget adjustments — see staff report.

While the previous council had been warned last May that the council has a “spending problem” and was facing a budget crisis and shortfall of $58 million it fell on deaf ears. In March, the newly elected council was informed of a budget shortfall of $33 million over the next two years—after already making some cuts.

According to the agenda, the city was using Model 1 as a baseline before adding models 2, 3, 4 and 5 which would build off the cuts.

MODEL 1: This is the baseline model initially presented to City Council that incorporated $8.7M in reductions in FY26 and $9.5M in FY27. Further refinements were made, resulting in $10.4M in total reductions in FY26 and $11.2M in FY27- refer to page 10 for the full list of reductions.

Model 2: Model 2 includes additional reductions of $1,339,138 in FY26 and $1,366,910 in FY27 beyond measures in Model 1. The General Fund meets the 20% minimum unassigned fund balance level in, FY26; however, the minimum fund balance should be at least $19,297,944 in FY27 to meet a 20% unassigned reserve, meaning that is it deficient by $10,033,707. A detail of the reductions built into Model 2 is provided below.

Model 2 reductions include $11.7 million in FY 2026 and $12.6 million in FY 2027

Model 2 Tidbits:

Public works will see freezes in multiple positions… added workloads.
Reducing landscape expenditures by $1M in each fiscal year: Reducing landscape expenditures by this much will result in the following implications: playground repairs will not occur; preventative tree maintenance will not occur; will need to shut off water to landscape in some areas; sign repairs will not occur; vandalism and accident repairs will not be made; will need to close bathrooms at some parks; dead or missing plants will not be replaced causing landscape to look barren; irrigation controllers will not be repaired or replaced; soundwall repairs will not be made

Model 3: Model 3 includes additional “net” reductions of $941,482 in FY26 and $612,850 in FY27 beyond measures in Models 1 and 2 as the reduction in funding for the AQCRT offsets the cost of adding 4 positions. The General Fund meets the 20% minimum unassigned fund balance level in, FY26; however, the minimum fund balance should be at least $19,297,944 in FY27 to meet a 20% unassigned reserve, meaning that is it deficient by $8,479,375.

Note – within model 3:

Angelo Quinto Crisis Response Team would begin experiencing budget cuts and a reduction in service.
Economic Development would be folded in under Community Development Department.

Model 4: Model 4 builds on Model 3 and incorporates a 5% furlough (5% pay reduction/reduced work hours) for employees, excluding APOA and APSMA bargaining unit employees, and assumes all elected officials take a 5% stipend reduction as well as a full fiscal year implementation. A 5% equivalent pay reduction for APOA and APSMA positions would be $1,306,530 in FY26 and $1,350,062 in FY27 that Council should negotiate for not only further reducing the deficit, but parity as well, if a furlough is implemented.

$5M in Budget Stabilization Funds are utilized in FY26 and FY27. The 20% minimum fund balance is met and exceeded each fiscal year. The Budget Stabilization fund balance is projected to be $32,941,944 at the end of FY26 and $26,641,944 at the end of FY27 if $5M per year if funds are used to offset the deficit.

Model 4 reduction totals include $13.89 million in FYI 2026 and $14.49 million in FY 27.

Model 5: Model 5 builds on Model 4 and incorporates a total of a 10% furlough (10% pay reduction/reduced work hours) for employees, excluding APOA and APSMA bargaining unit employees, and assumes all elected officials take a 10% stipend reduction as well as a full fiscal year implementation. A 10% equivalent pay reduction for APOA and APSMA positions would be $2,613,060 in FY26 and $2,700,124 in FY27 that Council should negotiate not only for further reducing the deficit, but parity as well, if a furlough is implemented.

$5M in Budget Stabilization funds are utilized in each of the next two fiscal years. The Budget Stabilization fund balance is projected to be $32,941,944 at the end of FY26 and $26,641,944 at the end of FY27 if $5M per year if funds are used to offset the deficit.

A table summarizing the grand total of all reduction measures incorporated into Model 5 follows. Model 5 begins with the Model 1 baseline and incorporates all proposals in Models 2-5.

Additional Budget Considerations

As part of this budget exercise, we are requesting definitive direction on items previously discussed in prior sessions, including those items in the reduction tables presented, whether to continue to include or exclude and/or concurrence for the final draft budget that is presented. Prior budget session items discussed:

Public Works Budget

As outlined in the Public Works budget discussion on April 1, 2025:

$227,000 in FY26 and $233,810 in FY27 has been excluded from the Street Maintenance budget for additional street sweeping services that City Council requested in the FY25 budget. Should City Council want to continue providing this additional service, a budget reduction in another area should be considered to offset this cost.
$50,013 in FY26 and $52,072 in FY27 for part-time help in the Facilities Maintenance division to aid in increasing demand for maintenance of City facilities. The division is only staffed with one Lead Facilities Maintenance Worker and two Facility Maintenance Workers.
$110,000 new to fleet vehicle and equipment purchases comprised of two trailers for the Streets division. These purchases could be authorized to be paid from the Vehicle Replacement Fund, with contributions to catch-up and repay the purchases to be evaluated in the next two-year budget cycle.

Public Safety and Community Resources (PSCR) – Environmental Resources

As outlined in the March 4th and March 11th PSCR budget presentations, the Energy Efficiency & Conservation division accounted for in the Capital Improvement Fund will be fully depleting PG&E rebate funds received in FY26, thus creating a funding shortfall of $52,500 in FY26 and $58,037 in FY27 to implement the Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP). Potential funding sources for this are Gas Tax, Water Fund, General Fund and Marsh Landing Mitigation Funds. If funding is not provided, the City will not be able to complete energy efficiency programs for low income households and will not be able to increase outreach on sustainable programs available to our community.

Non-Departmental Budget

$60,000 is included in the FY25 budget for a Chinese History Project. Council may want to evaluate returning funds to reserves or allocating to a higher priority General Fund need.
$277,131 is included in the FY25 budget for non-profit capacity building grants. As of yet, no guidelines or parameters have been established to carry this out. Council may want to evaluate returning funds to reserves or allocating to a higher priority General Fund need.

Other

All budget models presented remove vehicle replacement set aside for all General Fund departments for the next two fiscal years and assume any new to fleet needs for the General Fund will be paid from the replacement fund. This will require an increase in the replacement fund contribution in future years to “catch up” for this deference. The estimated 6/30/25 balance of the replacement fund is approximately $11.2M