Office of Inspector General – BGA Policy 2026 Budget Snapshot

Table of Contents

Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2025 Budget

*Historical comparisons typically cover budget years 2011-2025; for the OIG summary, the years from 2017 onward have been used. 2017 was the first full budget year for which OIG's current responsibilities and mandatory minimum funding levels were in place.

• OIG's proposed $14.3 million in 2026 departmental appropriations falls $5.7 million short of the $20 million mandatory minimum as calculated by the city's budget office. As in previous years, OBM closes the gap by counting an estimated "fringe" cost of departmental pensions and benefits towards the funding floor, a practice that diverges from the rest of the city's budget process in several significant ways:
  • In current city practice, annual budgets do not treat pension/benefit costs as part of departmental budgets for any purposes other than meeting mandatory funding minimums.
  • There are no OIG-specific appropriations for pension and benefits, which are treated as citywide lump-sums under the Finance General section of the budget.
  • The fringe cost used to reflect OIG's share of citywide pension/benefits appropriations is an estimate based on a fringe multiplier for an employee at the citywide average salary and covered by the Municipal Employee's Annuity and Benefits Fund, not a specific appropriation or calculation based on OIG's departmental budgeted positions.
• OIG lost a net three positions in the 2026 budget proposal, primarily from reductions in analyst roles.
• Year-over-year changes from the previous budget are relatively minimal for OIG, with a roughly $300,000 increase in software maintenance and licensing appropriation the largest line-item increase and a decline of slightly under $200,000 in technical meeting costs the largest cut.
• In 2024, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, OIG spent 99.3% of its locally-funded budget, making it the most on-target city department overall. That included slight overspend in contractual services and equipment appropriations, balanced primarily by underspend in personnel services.

Historical Context

The Office of Inspector General has expanded several times in both administrative scope and budgeted staff and appropriations over the years, as various updates to its establishing ordinance strengthened the role of the department. A major expansion in 2016 gave the office a broader oversight mandate and established a mandatory minimum budget set at 0.14% of annual appropriations, not including pension payments in excess of 2014 levels and intergovernmental agreements entered into by the OIG.

Because the department's funding level is partially tied to the size of the budget overall, OIG's annual appropriations tend to track relatively closely to the total citywide appropriations. Since 2017, the first full budget year for which OIG's modern form and budget floor were established, OIG's budget grew at an average annual rate of 8.1%, or 4.5% adjusted for inflation, compared to a citywide average rate of 8.3% (inflation-adjusted 4.4%).

Over the past three complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, OIG spent on average 92.3% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.4% local fund spend.

Staffing levels at OIG have grown by an average annual rate of 5% since 2011, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%. Much of that growth was driven by the office's significant expansion in portfolio in 2016, when the office's current responsibilities and budget floor were established. Setting the benchmark at 2017, the first full budget year of the modern OIG, average annual headcount growth was 3.3%.

From February through September of 2025, the months for which the city released full-time position vacancy data, OIG averaged a 3.7% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

None of the department's budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (the same title/division/section/subsection combination vacant for all eight months of available data).

Budget Floor

OIG is one of three city departments with a mandatory minimum budget set in its establishing ordinance. A BGA Policy analysis earlier this year found multiple issues with the way the city calculates the minimums and determines that the relevant departments have met them.

OIG's proposed $14.3 million in 2026 departmental appropriations fall $5.7 million short of the $20 million mandatory minimum as calculated by the city's budget office. As in previous years, OBM closes the gap by counting an estimated "fringe" cost of departmental pensions and benefits towards the funding floor, a practice that diverges from the rest of the city's budget process in several significant ways:

• In current city practice, annual budgets do not treat pension/benefit costs as part of departmental budgets for any purposes other than meeting mandatory funding minimums.
• There are no OIG-specific appropriations for pension and benefits, which are treated as citywide lump-sums under the Finance General section of the budget.
• The fringe cost used to reflect OIG's share of citywide pension/benefits appropriations is an estimate based on a fringe multiplier for an employee at the citywide average salary covered by the Municipal Employee's Annuity and Benefits Fund, not a specific appropriation or calculation based on OIG's departmental budgeted positions.

The city's calculation also counts estimated indirect costs towards OIG's budget floor, although in this year and the past several years fringe alone has been sufficient to exceed the threshold as calculated by OBM. Indirect costs are taken from annual Cost Allocation Plan analyses performed for the city by a third-party contractor.

Staffing

OIG lost a net three positions in the 2026 budget proposal, primarily from reductions in analyst roles.

Appropriations

As in the previous year, OIG is entirely locally-funded in this year's budget proposal. The bulk of OIG's appropriations come from the corporate fund, although the department saw a slight uptick in the 2026 proposal in appropriations from the water and airport funds as well.

Largest Appropriations

As with most departments, personnel costs make up the bulk of OIG's appropriations, with salaries and wages on payroll by far the largest expense category.

In 2024, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, OIG spent 99.3% of its locally-funded budget, making it the most on-target city department overall. That included slight overspend in contractual services and equipment appropriations, balanced primarily by underspend in personnel services. (Because the appropriation categories used in the 2022-2024 actuals datasets from the Department of Finance do not correspond exactly to the appropriation accounts used in the budgets presented by the Office of Budget and Management, an exact line-by-line comparison of real spend to budget is not possible.)

Change from Previous Year

Year-over-year changes from the previous budget are relatively minimal for OIG, with a roughly $300,000 increase in software maintenance and licensing appropriation the largest line-item increase and a decline of slightly under $200,000 in technical meeting costs the largest cut.

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