From: Aram James
To: Gennady Sheyner; Emily Mibach; Diana Diamond; Braden Cartwright; Palo Alto Free Press; [email protected]; Shikada, Ed; Council, City; Human Relations Commission; Lythcott-Haims, Julie; Veenker, Vicki; Ed Lauing; Reckdahl, Keith; Jeff Conrad; [email protected]; Roberta Ahlquist; [email protected]; Yolanda Conaway
Subject: Consulting fees in Palo Alto—we need our city council to vet these fees and remove consulting fees over say $50 thousand from the consent calendar
Date: Sunday, August 10, 2025 10:25:29 AM
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City Council Must Push Back on Palo Alto’s Outrageous consulting fees. Check this week’s consent calendar for consulting fees for our planning department etc.
You’re asking how much the City of Palo Alto spends annually on outside consultants.
According to recent local reporting:
A Palo Alto Online journalist noted that the city doesn’t appear to have easily accessible aggregate figures for consultant spending —and that even city officials, including the City Manager, didn’t have an immediate answer when asked
.
In 2024, the city spent approximately $27 million on consultant services. That includes a wide range of consultancies—from planning and design to engineering, IT, litigation support, and more
.
A separate report corroborated that figure, noting “consultants costing city $27 million a year; councilwoman says they’re overused ‘a bit’”
.
While these sources don’t break down consultant spending by department or project, they confirm that consultant costs are substantial—hovering around the $27 million per year mark.
Why It’s Hard to Find Detailed Consultant Spending
The city’s annual budget documents, while publicly available (including the FY 2025 operating and capital budgets, “Budget in Brief,” and Long‑Range Forecasts), do not include a centralized line item for consultant fees. Consultant expenses are instead embedded in various project budgets, making it difficult to extract a total without compiling data across numerous entries
.
A Palo Alto Online journalist noted that the city doesn’t appear to have easily accessible aggregate figures for consultant spending—and that even city officials, including the City Manager, didn’t have an immediate answer when asked
.
Summary
Estimated annual expenditure on outside consultants: Approximately $27 million (based on 2024 data).
Visibility in budgeting documents: Not explicitly broken out—consultant costs are distributed across various project and departmental line items.
Let me know if you’d like to dive into specific city projects or departments to estimate the consultant portion, or explore trends over previous fiscal years!