Department of Water Management – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

DWM's budgeted appropriations increased dramatically in the 2026 budget, leaping from $417.2 million in 2025 to $772.7 million in 2026, an 85.2% increase.

Prior to the 2026 jump, DWM appropriations had been increasing more slowly at an average rate of 3.8% annually, or 1.4% when adjusted for inflation through 2025, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.2%). The current proposal would increase the department's appropriations by 1.4% from the previous year.

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out "fringe" pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae.

Based on the city's fringe formulae, the DWM fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 24% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%.

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, DWM spent on average 94.6% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Headcount did not increase at DWM with the substantial budget increase from 2025 to 2026, with the same total positions/FTEs budgeted in 2026 as in 2027.

Overall, DWM's budgeted headcount grew at an average annual rate of 0.9% from 2011-2026, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%. The current proposal would increase budgeted headcount by 0.4% from the previous year.

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, DWM averaged a 16.1% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

189 of the department's budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data):