Roads, Trucks, and Trash: Palm Coast’s Public Works Divisions Near $43 Million

Part 11 in a series reviewing the City of Palm Coast’s adopted Fiscal Year 2026 budget

This section looks at four branches inside Palm Coast’s Public Works Department: Streets Maintenance, Facilities Maintenance, Collection & Sanitation, and Fleet Management, based on budget materials posted on the city’s website. Put together, those four divisions account for $42,957,730 in FY2026 spending, with the total split among four separate funds.

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

Public Works is responsible for maintaining city property and core infrastructure — buildings and public facilities, streets and bridges, roadways and drainage — and it also oversees the city’s contracted garbage pickup.

Streets Maintenance: $10,321,742

Streets Maintenance handles upkeep across the city’s rights-of-way: pavement and medians, sidewalks, signs and signals, plus litter pickup, lawn work, and landscaping along parkways. For FY2026, the budget climbs to $10,321,742, up $472,515 from the $9,849,227 adopted for FY2025. In FY2024, actual spending came in lower at $8,645,314.

Funded through the General Fund, the Streets budget is shown in four categories. Personnel Services increase to $5,273,782 in FY2026, a $334,718 bump from FY2025’s adopted $4,939,064, after $4,215,523 was spent in FY2024. Operating Expenditures move up as well, reaching $5,003,560, which is $105,397 above the FY2025 adopted $4,898,163, compared with $4,420,616 spent in FY2024. Capital Outlay rises sharply to $44,400, up $34,400 from the $10,000 set aside in FY2025 (FY2024 actual was $9,175). Transfers to Other Funds drop out entirely, falling to $0 from the $2,000 budgeted in FY2025 (and there were no transfers recorded in FY2024).

Staffing continues to edge upward: 58.00 full-time equivalent positions in FY2024, then 59.00 in FY2025, and 61.00 in FY2026, a net gain of 2.00 positions year to year. The budget notes that five positions were moved out to Facilities Maintenance from this fund in FY2024.

FY2025 work orders are broken down by type in the document:

Facilities Maintenance: $2,273,201

Facilities Maintenance covers the day-to-day care of city buildings, including the Community Center, Aquatic Center, City Hall, and the fire stations. The FY2026 budget is set at $2,273,201, which is $95,957 above the $2,177,244 adopted for FY2025. FY2024 actual spending was $1,990,854.

This division is paid from the Facilities Management Fund, an internal service fund used to shift money between departments for shared services. The budget is presented across four lines. Personnel Services rise to $665,466 for FY2026, up $90,957 from FY2025’s adopted $574,509, with FY2024 spending at $517,021. Operating Expenses increase to $1,567,735, a $67,740 increase over the $1,499,995 adopted for FY2025, compared with $1,444,502 in FY2024. Transfers to Other Funds fall to $0, down from the $21,740 budgeted in FY2025 (FY2024 actual transfers were $29,331). Contingency, described as a reserve for unplanned costs, is budgeted at $40,000, down $41,000 from FY2025’s $81,000 (and no contingency spending occurred in FY2024).

Staffing moves from 6.00 full-time equivalent positions in both FY2024 and FY2025 to 7.00 in FY2026, an increase of 1.00. The notes also indicate that in FY2024, six positions were transferred from Facilities to Streets Maintenance, and one position was transferred to Streets from this fund.

FY2025 work orders are listed as:

Collection & Sanitation: $19,698,024

Collection & Sanitation oversees the contracted garbage collection service. For FY2026 the budget reaches $19,698,024, up $1,051,883 from the $18,646,141 adopted for FY2025. Actual spending in FY2024 totaled $16,607,153.

This program is funded through the Solid Waste Fund, an enterprise fund supported by user fees. The budget is split into two main lines. Personnel Services increase to $315,014 in FY2026, which is $76,575 above FY2025’s adopted $238,439, after $177,132 in FY2024. Operating Expenses, which include payments to the outside hauler, rise to $18,914,448, a $506,746 increase from the $18,407,702 adopted for FY2025, compared with $16,430,021 spent in FY2024.

Staffing remains at 3.00 full-time equivalent positions for FY2026, unchanged from FY2025 (it was 2.00 in FY2024).

Fleet Management: $10,664,763

Fleet Management is responsible for maintaining and repairing city vehicles and equipment, replacing them as needed, and setting aside reserves so replacements can be purchased when units age out. In contrast to the other divisions, Fleet’s FY2026 budget is lower: $10,664,763, a decrease of $794,374 from the $11,459,137 adopted for FY2025. Actual FY2024 spending was $10,596,094.

Fleet is funded through the Fleet Management Fund, an internal service fund supported by charges billed to the departments that use the vehicles. The budget is divided into five lines. Personnel Services increase to $1,481,856 for FY2026, up $68,282 from FY2025’s adopted $1,413,574, compared with $1,111,243 in FY2024. Operating Expenses dip to $3,007,201, down $40,115 from the $3,047,316 adopted for FY2025, versus $2,467,279 spent in FY2024. Capital Outlay, the largest category and the one tied to vehicle purchases, increases to $4,755,968, up $666,960 from the $4,089,008 adopted for FY2025 (FY2024 capital outlay was much higher at $7,014,273). Transfers to Other Funds stay at $0, the same as FY2025 (FY2024 actual transfers were $3,299). Contingency drops to $1,419,738, down $1,489,501 from the $2,909,239 budgeted in FY2025, with no contingency spending recorded in FY2024.

Staffing stays flat at 15.00 full-time equivalent positions across FY2024 through FY2026. A note says one position was moved from Facilities Maintenance from this fund in FY2024.

Work orders for FY2025 are categorized as:

The Four Divisions Combined

Together, these four Public Works divisions total $42,957,730 in the FY2026 budget: $10,321,742 for Streets, $2,273,201 for Facilities Maintenance, $19,698,024 for Collection & Sanitation, and $10,664,763 for Fleet Management. Three of the four divisions increase over the prior year; Fleet Management is the exception, with a reduced budget. Total staffing across the group comes to 86 positions.

Performance Measures

The department reports three headline performance indicators.

For fleet preventative maintenance, the target is completing scheduled services on time 85 percent of the time. The division reported 76 percent, based on 319 preventative maintenance services, 258 completed on or before schedule and 61 marked past due.

For work order response, the standard is an initial response within 24 hours and resolution within seven business days. During the fiscal year, the division opened 1,536 work orders, kept first response at 8 working hours, and closed 98 percent within 48 hours, with 2 percent needing scheduling.

For mowing, the stated goal is finishing mowing rotations on schedule 93 percent of the time, tracked through GIS. Across the fiscal year, right-of-way mowing averaged 89 percent, neighborhood mowing reached 100 percent, and median mowing averaged 91 percent. The department also notes it is reviewing how it structures reporting, which could change how this metric is calculated.

Operational Highlights

From the department’s progress report: Fleet completed warranty coordination that saved $19,000, and fleet auctions brought in $655,923.32. Facilities handled more than 183 fourth-quarter work orders and saved $2,000 by repairing generators in-house at Fire Station 25. Landscape operations completed over 1,400 work orders, while sign and signal operations inspected more than 12,000 signs citywide. Residential collections serviced 46,405 accounts and collected 56,106.75 tons for the year, including 11,275.74 tons of recycling and yard waste, and community clean-up events removed over 2,250 pounds of debris.

Disclaimer: All information in this article comes from public records and is drawn from budget documents posted on the City of Palm Coast’s website. Anyone seeking deeper budget detail would need to request it 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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