ESCANABA — Money will be the overarching topic of Escanaba’s city council meeting Thursday, with an agenda ranging from the upcoming fiscal year budget to the city’s most-recent audit.

First on the agenda is first of five public hearings scheduled on the city’s 2025-26 fiscal year budget. Public participation in these hearings is relatively rare, but the hearings do provide a chance for residents, organizations and businesses to weigh in on the city’s spending and upcoming projects.

In new business, the council will hear a presentation from Paul Matz of auditing firm Rehmann on the results of the June 30, 2024 audit.

Then, the council will weigh in on potential changes to the city’s net metering policy, which allows residents who produce their own power through solar panels to be fed back into the grid in exchange for offsets on their electric bill. The changes would establish the nameplate capacity for a renewable energy generator to be less than 20 kilowatts for residential customers and less than 500 kilowatts for commercial and large power customers. The proposal also updates how the price of renewable energy certificates change the equation for credits to customers.

Last on the agenda, the council will weigh in on the purchase of new self-contained breathing apparatus for the public safety department. If approved, the city would purchase nine sets of equipment for a total of $56,000.