Finance Director Marie Kalka presented preliminary numbers during a Sept. 2 public budget workshop and told council the budget was balanced this year.
“We budget conservatively, and that’s why we have savings at the end of each year,” Kalka said.
The FY 2026 proposed budget plans continue the city’s funding efforts from last fiscal year aimed at keeping a close eye on competitive law enforcement pay. Draft budget documents show $7.3 million allocated to the police department, a $1.2 million increase from FY 2025 numbers. The parks and recreation department falls in line next with $5.3 million allocated, a roughly $100,000 increase from FY 2025 numbers.
City Manager Dave Beach said based on council’s direction, they will be restructuring law enforcement command staff pay grades and could hire additional police officers, possibly filling in the new officer positions by mid-year of 2026. Police Chief Gary Ratliff said that when he worked at the League City Police Department, at least 75% of his recruits were noncertified.
While that approach wasn’t originally used at West U, Ratliff said the policy has since changed “behind the scenes” to allow West U to recruit and hire noncertified officers or academy trainees, sponsored by the police department until they pass the state licensing exam.
“We get to teach the West U way of doing business,” Ratliff said. “It’s about 11 months from the time we hire them to the time they’re on the street by themselves.”
Ratliff said he was tasked at the beginning of the year to come up with what the staffing plan should look like and found that West University should have about 40-42 officers based on department needs.
Last year, the city’s police department had 25 full-time employees budgeted, not including command staff, as Community Impact previously reported. Seven staff members and officers are currently listed on the police department’s website.
“We do have a plan of working towards that [number] incrementally, which is the best way to do it and not take a knee-jerk reaction to jump to say, ‘Oh we need that right now,’” Ratliff said.
At least 22 people are in the screening process, Ratliff said, with final tests occurring in October. Noncertified officers’ annual salary ranges from $67,433 to $74,334 based on the ranking and tenure, according to the city’s website. Certified officers with at least one year of experience have an annual salary starting at $74,334.
“It is very possible that we could have as many six or seven position filled before the end of the year,” Ratliff said.
What we know
With an average $1.68 million West U home price, the proposed 2025 property tax rate City Council unanimously approved for potential adoption Aug. 11 was a 3.5% increase over the no-new-revenue rate, at $0.2294 per $100 of home valuation, according to agenda documents, which means the city is proposing to increase property taxes for the upcoming tax year.
Kalka said personnel costs are 64% of the general fund budget, which incorporates employee salaries and benefits. As far as expenses, Kalka said that number went up roughly $512,000 from last year with a 1.6% increase in operation costs, as well as electric and natural gas fees, she said.
Other increases residents may see in the future, in particularly 2028 and 2031 Kalka said, are related to water/wastewater rates as projects advance within the city’s 2026-2035 Capital Improvement Plan, including the West Side Drainage Project.
Going forward
The city will hold public hearings for both the proposed FY 2026 budget and tax rates at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the city’s municipal building located at 3800 University Blvd. City Council will vote on both items Sept. 22 for use in the next fiscal year, and once adopted, the budget will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
