Seabrook residents will get their first comprehensive look at the city's proposed spending plan for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 when the City Council holds a special budget workshop Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 6 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers, 1700 1st Street.

The single-item agenda covers every major piece of the FY 2026-2027 budget: the General Fund (department payrolls, operating revenues and expenditures), the Enterprise Fund (water, wastewater and sanitation utilities), Special Revenue and Dedicated Funds (grants and hotel occupancy tax), and the Capital Improvement Program for multi-year infrastructure projects.

No formal vote is scheduled. The agenda packet describes the session as a discussion item "presented for discussion and policy guidance," with staff using council direction and public feedback to shape later budget recommendations.

City Manager Gayle Cook's office prepared the agenda. Cook told the Seabrook Economic Development Corporation board at its July 9 meeting that staff would present a more developed budget with greater detail at a future session, suggesting Wednesday's workshop will offer numbers not yet made public.

The workshop builds on groundwork laid over the summer. Council held a separate Capital Improvement Program workshop June 30 to review active projects and proposed FY 2027 capital spending on streets, parks, drainage and other infrastructure. The EDC board is expected to see a more detailed version of its own FY 2027 budget at its next meeting Aug. 13.

One funding source already in the pipeline: a $250,000 Texas General Land Office grant through the Community Development Block Grant–Mitigation Resilient Communities Program, awarded to fund a comprehensive zoning ordinance update. That grant is the type of restricted revenue that falls under the Special Revenue and Dedicated Funds category on Wednesday's agenda.

Residents who want to speak at the workshop can register online at www.seabrooktx.gov/publiccomment. Speakers are limited to four minutes each and must address the chair. Mayor Jim Sweeney presides over the council, which normally meets the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m.; the Wednesday evening session is a special meeting called outside that regular schedule.

Under Texas law, the city must hold a public hearing and formally adopt the budget before the fiscal year begins Oct. 1. No date for that adoption hearing has been announced.