The Newton City Council is putting money into the 2025-2026 City budget to address employee retirements. City Administrator Matt Muckler calls it succession planning.

“We know we are going to have some police department officers retiring in the spring of 2026. One of the questions is, do we bring in some officers and get them trained up so they are ready to go when those officers retire or not. That’s a $70,000 question for the City Council. They decided to do it, and I think it was a good decision.”

Newton’s longtime Financial Officer, Lisa Frazier, also plans to retire in the spring of next year according to Muckler. He says the city plans to bring in a financial analyst to train her successor. The Newton City Administrator adds that city employees in all departments do a lot of cross-training to ease transitions when employees leave, and that it helps with continuity in services the city provides to the public.