(DUBLIN, CA.) – Multiple different topics are discussed at Dublin’s Feb. 17 city council meeting, but the city’s fiscal report takes center stage.
During this meeting, the council receives their second quarter report on the 2025-2026 fiscal year, a proposal for an increase in Dublin’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) and is updated on the status of the new vendor for their government website.
The Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Second Quarter Financial Review, given by City Finance Director Jay Baxa, is rather positive. In this review, Baxa refers to Dublin’s general fund.
"We're looking at a [potential] $17.7 million surplus. And overall, at [$274.16 million] reserves at the end of the year,” he says.
Photo Credit: dublinca.new.swagit.com
Most of Dublin’s expenditures are reported as going toward the development of roads, recreational activities for the public, preschool programs and other programs and projects that benefit the public. These expenditures amount to $69.21 million.
Dublin’s revenue increased by about $2.5 million, coming mostly from interest and other unspecified sources.
By the end of the report, multiple council members express their gratitude for the financial team and how impressed they are with the positive report. The council then unanimously approves the report and a budget change that will add $3.12 million to the general fund.
Other cities, such as Pensacola, FL., are not experiencing the same positivity as Dublin in their communities regarding fiscal matters.
The next item on the agenda is a report on Dublin’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), with staff requesting direction from the council regarding a potential increase.
The TOT, or hotel tax, is paid only by those who book a room in a hotel. The funds from this tax are received by Dublin’s general fund.
This presentation is given by Economic Development Manager Felicia Escover.
Escover reports that city staff have spoken with five out of six managers out of the six hotels within Dublin. Managers expressed little to no opposition regarding the idea of increasing Dublin’s TOT.
Most of the discussion is centered around how an increase might affect the army hotel at Camp Parks and its guests, with other council members inquiring about how it might affect business across all hotels. Despite their questions and concerns, Escover reports that city staff has not gathered enough information in order to address them all.
Photo Credit: dublinca.new.swagit.com / Felicia Escover
Due to this lack of information, Mayor Sherry Hu stresses that she wants staff to conduct research regarding how an increase in the TOT affected business in other cities before considering any further action.
If the council finds increasing the TOT desirable at a later date, it will be placed on the Nov. 3 ballot to be voted on by city residents.
A neighboring city to Dublin, Pleasanton, CA., has recently increased their TOT, which is part of what sparked staff to propose an increase in Dublin’s. Read more about Dublin’s discussion here.
The city council also receives an update from Senior Digital Engagement Specialist Ryan Moran regarding the vendor change for Dublin’s government website.
The website was previously hosted under CivicPlus, and the new vendor that city staff has picked out is Revize Software Systems.
The city is working with this new vendor to make navigating the website more efficient and accessible to the public. One of the key tools being added to the website in order to achieve this is an artificial intelligence chatbot.
According to Moran, this bot would be utilized to answer questions and direct users to related pages on the website.
Vice Mayor Jean Josey has a concern regarding this chatbot. When asking whether the bot is able to obtain or share user information, Moran states that the chatbot is purely informational and therefore does not require personally identifiable user information.
However, this wording is not strong enough for Josey. She wishes to add stronger language to the restrictions on the chatbot.
"I would love to add another sentence [...] to make it explicit that not only can they not require people to provide the information, but that they may not scrape it from anywhere else either.”
Photo Credit: dublinca.new.swagit.com / Jean Josey
Moran and other council members find this addition to be reasonable, and the item along with the language alteration and additions are passed unanimously.
If you have any questions, please email me at madison.v@lead4earth.org or comment below.
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