Naperville ’27 budget calls for new hires, revisits parking deck options
Naperville could hire nine new full-time employees and convert one part-time job into a full-time role next year to better address public records requests, forestry services and power outages.
The Naperville City Council reviewed the proposed spending plan at a Tuesday night workshop meeting, where city staff presented a $723.83 million budget for next year, up 5.6% over this year’s budget. It includes $183.1 million for the general fund, a 4.8% increase — or $8.32 million — over 2026.
As currently proposed, nearly $210 million is earmarked for capital improvement projects, which council members reviewed at a budget workshop last month.
One of those projects is a new parking deck at the downtown Nichols Library, which has been discussed by the city on and off for decades. It was revisited Tuesday with an option to pursue a new surface lot instead of a full parking deck.
New positions
Staff attributes most of the increase in the general fund budget to personnel expenses, including rising pension, salary and health insurance costs and the addition of new full-time positions.
One of those full-time jobs is a new assistant city attorney, at a cost of $140,000, to handle the increasing number of Freedom of Information Act requests. City Attorney Mike DiSanto said FOIA requests have been increasing and that police body camera footage requests in particular have increased exponentially since 2022.
Many of the requests are believed to be from nontraditional media sources looking to post footage for entertainment purposes.
“We kind of feel like the ducks on the water, where we try to keep things looking smooth but under the water, you know, we’re paddling like crazy to keep up with all of these responses,” DiSanto said.
Since body camera footage can take hours to review and often includes sensitive information, DiSanto said another lawyer is needed to handle the influx and ensure that the city can respond to them in a timely and appropriate manner.
Naperville’s Transportation, Engineering and Development (TED) department is requesting three new positions: a senior traffic engineer, a code enforcement officer and a project manager for its development review team.
The total cost for all three would be $501,000. Staff said the positions are all needed to better address everything from complex development projects to traffic concerns throughout the city.
Public Works is seeking an additional field supervisor for its forestry division to handle forestry-related service requests, which have increased by 37% since 2021. Further, staff members say investments in contracted tree trimming and removal services have more than doubled since 2024, creating a need for an additional field supervisor.
That position is budgeted at $141,000. A vehicle also would be needed at an estimated cost of $74,000.
Naperville Fire Department is looking to expand its digital footprint and more effectively communicate with the public. To do that, a current part-time communications specialist job would become full-time, costing about $67,000.
Four new hires are proposed for the city’s electric and water utilities. Money for the positions would come from the utility fund, which is not part of the general fund.
To better respond to nighttime outages, the electric utility wants to hire an additional system controller for $152,000 while the water utility is looking at three new positions at a total of about $455,000. That includes two wastewater treatment operators to align with the upgrades and improvements to the Springbrook Water Reclamation Center and one utility supervisor to handle the water utility’s automation infrastructure.
Council members generally supported all of the proposed positions except the field supervisor for the forestry division, for which they requested more information.
Nichols parking deck
Council members also reviewed three options for improving downtown parking by using space at Nichols Library, including a new option for a surface lot just west of Nichols Library in lieu of a parking deck.
The surface lot would add 30 spaces to the library’s current parking supply, with engineering and construction costs estimated at $550,000.
The other two options kept the parking deck but offered differing timelines for construction. One would prioritize completion of downtown streetscape projects before the deck is built in 2031 and 2032. The other would prioritize parking deck construction so that it is completed in 2029 and 2030.
Council members, however, were hesitant to commit to one of the three options without more data on the city’s downtown parking supply, including current occupancy information and user parking satisfaction. TED Director Jennifer Louden said that information will be available for council review by mid-November.
Should the council pursue the parking deck, construction would take two years, raising concerns about the downtown business impact.
But not pursuing the deck raises questions about money collected from Naperville’s downtown food and beverage tax, which is meant to fund parking downtown projects.
The next budget workshop is scheduled for Nov. 10.
cstein@chicagotribune.com