Demorest’s proposed 2025 budget rewrite still has no recorded result

Demorest scheduled public hearings June 2 and June 9, 2026, on a proposed amendment to its 2025 city budget, with the proposal slated for a City Council vote on June 9 at the Demorest Municipal Conference Center. More than two months later, the June notices and agenda still do not say whether council members approved, rejected or postponed the amendment.

The unresolved vote matters because a budget amendment can redirect public spending after the city’s annual plan is in place. July 2025 work-session minutes listed Demorest’s 2025 budget as “Final Approved” at $792,064, compared with $594,469 in 2024, a $197,595 increase. But the 2026 hearing notices identify neither the accounts to be changed nor the size or purpose of the proposed adjustment.

The city’s budget process began publicly with hearings on a proposed 2025 budget in October 2024, when a draft was made available for inspection. By July 2025, work-session minutes described a $792,064 2025 budget as final approved. The following June, however, council returned to the same budget year with a separately noticed amendment, setting hearings before a planned June 9 vote.

City officials, through the June agendas, presented the amendment as a matter for public hearing and submission to the mayor and council. Residents were given a formal opportunity to hear and respond before the planned vote, but the notices do not record public comments or explain the administration’s rationale. The documents likewise contain no recorded council position for or against the proposed revision.

What is documented is a proposal, two scheduled hearings and an intended June 9 vote—not an amended budget. The June 9 agenda repeated the hearing notice but reported no decision. And while the July 2025 minutes called the $792,064 plan “Final Approved,” they do not document a council motion, vote or adoption at that work session; they cannot by themselves establish when council approved the underlying budget.

The next public record that could settle the issue is June 9 council minutes, a vote record or an adopted amended-budget document. Until a record states whether the proposal passed and identifies the revised spending terms, residents cannot determine whether Demorest actually changed its 2025 budget or left the $792,064 plan intact.