Where the Money Goes: Palm Coast’s $696 Million Budget, Department by Department

Part 3 of a series reviewing the City of Palm Coast’s adopted Fiscal Year 2026 budget – Personnel and Department Overview, City Council, City Attorney, & City Manager’s Office

The full budget with line-by-line expenditures for each department can be found here.

Palm Coast is set to operate on a $696,444,327 budget in Fiscal Year 2026, based on the budget materials posted on the city’s website. That total, just under $696.4 million, is divided among five broad fund categories:

Put simply, the General Fund functions as the city’s primary checkbook — it pays for routine, day-to-day services such as fire protection, parks, and street upkeep. Enterprise Funds cover operations supported by user fees; water and sewer are the obvious examples. Capital Project Funds are reserved for large construction efforts. Internal Service Funds pay for shared citywide costs, like the vehicle fleet and employee health coverage. Special Revenue Funds, meanwhile, are dollars that, by law, must be spent for specific uses.

This installment focuses on the overall spending layout, staffing levels, and three offices at the top of City Hall’s org chart: the City Council, the City Manager and City Clerk’s Office, and the City Attorney.

The Big Picture: How the Money Is Divided

The budget book organizes spending by department and division. On the general government side, the City Council is set at $449,077. The City Manager’s Office is budgeted at $1,334,237. Communications & Marketing comes in at $742,022, Human Resources at $1,264,171, and the city’s self-insured employee health plan at $10,467,183. Another line, Non-Departmental, includes costs that aren’t tied to a single department and totals $1,827,644.

Law enforcement services, provided through a contract with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, are funded at $11,181,587, plus $12,000 in a Police Education fund. The City Attorney line is $790,000.

Financial Services receives $2,267,599 from the General Fund, with another $835,429 shown under Utility Finance and paid through the utility enterprise fund.

Community Development includes:

Connected special-purpose funds list:

The Fire Department is budgeted at $16,002,655, and a separate Fire Impact Fee Fund holds $12,326,600 aimed at growth-driven fire needs.

Stormwater, meaning the swales, pipes, and canals that move water through the city, is divided into:

Construction Management & Engineering is funded at $1,482,102 from the General Fund.

By a wide margin, the water and wastewater utility is Palm Coast’s largest operation. Its budgeted divisions include:

Utility Non-Departmental spending totals $48,797,892. Utility Capital Projects, covering system construction and expansion, total $326,390,581 — the largest single line item anywhere in the budget.

Public Works includes:

Recreation and Parks spending includes:

Information Technology is funded through:

When totals are combined across all funds, the first funding page shows general government and community development categories at:

The remaining departments make up the difference to reach the citywide totals listed at the top.

The City’s Workforce: 597 Full-Time Positions

For FY2026, the budget authorizes 597.00 full-time equivalent positions (FTEs). That’s 6.50 more than the 590.50 approved in FY2025, and above the 574.50 actual positions reported in FY2024. The count does not include the Mayor or the City Council members.

By fund, the General Fund supports 276.67 positions, up 4.80 from the prior year. Inside the General Fund:

The City Attorney shows zero city employees because the work is contracted.

Outside the General Fund:

A common way to gauge the size of local government is staffing per resident. Palm Coast lists a FY2026 population of 110,330, up from 106,193 in FY2025 and 101,737 in FY2024. With the population rising faster than staffing, positions per 1,000 residents continue to slide:

New Positions: $700,251 in Added Payroll

The FY2026 budget adds ten new positions, all with an estimated start date of October 1, 2025, and a combined estimated cost of $700,251. Those positions are:

The city notes that each new position must still pass a separate Human Resources approval process before it can be filled. Being budgeted does not automatically mean a job will be posted or hired.

Pay Raises and Salary Ranges

The 2026 pay plan sets performance-based merit raises that typically run from 0% to 5%. It also caps any department’s average raise at 4%.

Every job classification has an assigned salary range.

The Mayor, City Council, and City Manager are listed as not applicable to the graded ranges.

City Council: $449,077

For FY2026, the City Council is budgeted at $449,077, an increase of $46,794 over the $402,283 adopted for FY2025. Actual FY2024 spending was $361,191.

The council budget is split in two. Personnel Services, pay and benefits for the five elected officials, declines to $216,092 in FY2026 from $225,008 in FY2025, a drop of $8,916. Actual FY2024 personnel spending was $189,230. Operating Expenditures move the other direction, rising to $232,985 from $177,275, an increase of $55,710. FY2024 operating spending was $171,961.

The council has five members: the Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and three Council Members. They are treated as part-time or temporary and are not included in the city’s FTE totals. The current council is Mayor Mike Norris (term 2024–2028), Ty Miller (term 2024–2028), Theresa Carli Pontieri (term 2022–2026), David Sullivan (appointed April 15, 2025, serving until the November 2026 general election), and Charles Gambaro (appointed October 1, 2024, serving the remainder of a term that runs to November 2026). The council appoints the City Manager, the City Attorney, and the outside auditors who conduct the city’s annual financial audit.

City Manager’s and City Clerk’s Office: $1,334,237

The City Manager/City Clerk’s Office is budgeted at $1,334,237 for FY2026. That is $130,140 less than the $1,464,377 adopted for FY2025. Actual FY2024 spending was $1,247,477.

Personnel Services fall from $1,315,370 to $1,116,870, a reduction of $198,500. That change tracks with a staffing reduction — the office goes from 8.00 to 7.00 full-time positions. The Chief of Staff position was eliminated, while a City Administration Coordinator for Grants was added, joining the City Manager, Assistant City Manager, Executive Assistant to the City Manager, and a Staff Assistant II. Operating Expenditures increase from $149,007 to $217,367, up $68,360. FY2024 actuals were $1,138,273 in personnel costs and $109,204 in operating costs.

Palm Coast operates under the council-manager model. The elected council sets policy, adopts the budget, and establishes the tax rate. The appointed City Manager handles daily operations, prepares the annual budget, oversees staff, and keeps the council updated. The City Clerk, appointed by the City Manager, manages records, oversees election-related duties, and prepares council agendas. According to the budget document, the Clerk’s Office handled 906 public records requests during the last fiscal year, 136 more than the year before, prepared 398 documents for recording with the Flagler County Clerk of Court, and produced 52 agenda packets containing 563 agenda items.

City Attorney: $790,000

Palm Coast does not staff an in-house city attorney. Instead, it contracts with a legal firm, listed in the budget as Douglas Law Firm, which reports directly to the City Council and serves as general counsel for the city, its departments, boards, and officers.

The City Attorney budget is entirely Operating Expenditures. It totals $790,000 for FY2026, up $120,000 from the $670,000 adopted for FY2025. Actual spending in FY2024 was $763,037, meaning the FY2025 budget sat below what was actually spent the prior year, and the FY2026 amount climbs back above it.

The firm’s work includes civil litigation, ordinance violations, and administrative proceedings. The scope includes eminent domain, civil rights matters, foreclosures, property assessment disputes, and code enforcement cases. It also drafts and reviews ordinances, resolutions, and contracts. The budget document says the firm aims to keep costs down by limiting the need for outside counsel.

What Comes Next

Later installments in this series will take a closer look at other departments as the city continues work on the coming fiscal year’s budget.

Disclaimer: All information in this article is public record, drawn from the budget documents posted on the City of Palm Coast’s website. More detailed budget information would need to be requested through a FOIA (public records) request.

Another budget series for Palm Coast will be published when the budget hearings have been completed, outlining the budget for the fiscal year 2026-2027.

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