Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2025 Budget

	2025 Budgeted	2026 Proposed	Net Change	Percent Change	Average Annual Rate of Change (2011-2025)	Inflation-adjusted Rate of Change (2011-2024)
Appropriations	$14,833,880	$9,179,159	-$5,654,721	-38.12%	14.5%	11.4%
Positions & FTEs	40	40	0	0.00%	1.3%	NA

• MOPD staffing remained unchanged in the 2026 budget proposal, with the same 40 budgeted positions as approved for 2025.
• The most dramatic year-over-year change in MOPD’s budget was a reduction in the reserve balance appropriation, a category added last year for grant funds not intended to be spent in the current budget year. MOPD’s budgeted reserve balance declined -$5.6 million, -98.2% of the previous year’s appropriation. 
• Apart from the decline in reserve balance, most of MOPD’s other budget changes were relatively small, with a -$202,000 (-50.9%) reduction in outside contracting through the professional and technical services appropriation the largest cut and a $159,000 (4%) increase in pass-through spending to delegate agencies the biggest increase. 

Historical Context

From 2011-2025, MOPD’s budget increased at an average annual rate of 14.5% (inflation-adjusted 11.4%), driven in large part by a recent surge of pandemic relief funds. The citywide average rate for the same period was 8.3% (inflation-adjusted 4.4%). 

With the expenditure and expiration of ARPA funds, MOPD’s budget has begun to decline, including a proposed -$5.7 million (-31.1%) cut in this year’s budget. 

Over the past three complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, MOPD spent on average 86.2% of its locally funded budget, very close to the citywide average 86.4% local fund spend. (MOPD is however a primarily grant-funded department, making local fund actuals a limited point of comparison.) 

Staffing levels at MOPD have risen slightly over the years, including new positions added following the COVID-19 pandemic and associated relief funds, but headcount did not undergo as dramatic of a pandemic-era spike as departmental appropriations. 

From 2011-2025 the department’s total budgeted positions increased at an annual average rate of 1.3%, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%.

From February through September of 2025, the months for which the city released full-time position vacancy data, MOPD averaged an 11.3% vacancy rate, very close to the citywide average of 11.2%. 

Only one of the department’s budgeted full-time positions (in the Disability Specialist II title) was a persistent vacancy, meaning that the same title/division/section/subsection combination was vacant for all eight months of available data.

Staffing

MOPD staffing remained unchanged in the 2026 budget proposal, with the same 40 budgeted positions as approved for 2025. 

Appropriations

MOPD is 35.5% locally-funded in this year’s budget proposal, up from the previous year’s 22.5% due to reductions in grant-based appropriations.

$5.3 million of MOPD appropriations (more than half the department’s budget) are made from the Entitlement Fund, a newly-named fund this year that according to the Grant Details budget supplement draws on CDBG funding. (The CDBG fund type and Community Development Block Grant fund terminology used in previous years was eliminated from this year’s budget proposal.) 

The remainder of the department’s funding is primarily Corporate Fund, with small amounts from federal, local, and private grants. 

Fund	2025 Budgeted	2026 Proposed	Net Change from 2025	Percent Change from 2025	Percent of 2026 Recommended Funds
Entitlement Fund	$0	$5,341,000	$5,341,000	New Fund	58.2%
Corporate Fund	$3,335,880	$3,263,159	-$72,721	-2.2%	35.5%
Federal Grant Fund	$959,000	$535,000	-$424,000	-44.2%	5.8%
Local Public and Private Grant Fund	$352,000	$40,000	-$312,000	-88.6%	0.4%
Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund	$4,879,000	$0	-$4,879,000	-100.0%	0.0%
Community Development Block Grant Year LI	$5,308,000	$0	-$5,308,000	-100.0%	0.0%

Largest Appropriations

Unlike most departments, where personnel costs make up the bulk of departmental appropriations, MOPD’s largest expense category this year was pass-through spending to delegate agencies, with wages and salaries on payroll second-largest. 

Although local fund actuals are only a limited point of comparison for the heavily grant-funded MOPD, in 2024, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, the department spent 81.8% of its locally-funded budget, with a relatively large portion of its locally-funded contracting budget (40.8%) left unspent. 

Change from Previous Year

The most dramatic year-over-year change in MOPD’s budget was a reduction in the reserve balance appropriation, a category added last year for grant funds not intended to be spent in the current budget year. MOPD’s budgeted reserve balance declined -$5.6 million, -98.2% of the previous year’s appropriation. 

Apart from the decline in reserve balance, most of MOPD’s other budget changes were relatively small, with a -$202,000 (-50.9%) reduction in outside contracting through the professional and technical services appropriation the largest cut and a $159,000 (4%) increase in pass-through spending to delegate agencies the biggest increase.