Charlton had the strongest performance during the FY2027 budget hearing. He did more than state whether he supported the budget. He picked up a specific concern raised by a resident and asked staff to address it publicly.⁣
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The issue was Lenexa’s reserves. A resident argued that the city could move reserves from roughly 38% toward its stated 35% target and use that flexibility to help reach revenue neutrality. Charlton brought that question back to staff and asked for a direct answer. Staff explained that reserves are one-time money, while lowering the mill levy creates an ongoing reduction in revenue.⁣
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Charlton then followed up. If 35% is the city’s target and reserves are around 38%, how does the city ever actually get back to 35%?⁣
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That follow-up question was important. The first answer explained why reserves should not be used forever to replace recurring revenue, but it did not fully answer whether reserves above the city’s own target create room for other budget choices. Charlton caught that distinction and pushed on it.⁣
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He also took the discussion beyond this year’s vote. After supporting the budget, Charlton said he would like revenue neutrality, or even doing better than revenue neutrality, to become a governing-body goal for the next budget cycle. He tied that directly to concerns about rising property-tax bills.⁣
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There were still places he could have gone further. After the second reserve answer, he could have asked why 38% is preferable to 35%, whether revenue neutrality would still leave Lenexa within its reserve policy, and whether some of the $1.1 million difference could be handled through spending reductions instead of reserves.⁣
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Even with those missed follow-ups, Charlton showed the strongest combination of insight, questioning, follow-through, independent judgment and public explanation. He ultimately supported the budget, but he did not simply accept the recommendation without testing it first.⁣
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𝐓𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥: 𝟒𝟒/𝟓𝟎 𝐀-⁣
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𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐨𝐧….