Since I’m getting this “here’s my take on things” out of the way

Item 1 on Thursday’s workshop agenda was supposed to be the “Great 8 Biannual Capital Improvement Project Report”. Which first, “Great 8” is a construct of the mayor and the marketing department. The purpose of the workshop is for council to be kept abreast of where the city is with all of the approved capital improvement projects, not just the ones the mayor’s office wants to highlight and continue justifying.

With the South Howard project taking up all of the oxygen in the room, there are significant projects that won’t be discussed. The written report is nothing more than reiterating the “benefits” of the select projects with a general note of where they are in the timeline with cost. That’s not an update. That’s not a real status report. It’s a marketing brochure.

There is going to be a lot of debate this summer about balance of power between future councils and mayors during the Charter review. I will continue to advocate that until our city council take the responsibility of the budget more serious using the existing rules they are already empowered with, no change to the charter is going to solve the friction between the two bodies. I have been beating the drum for 3 years that council need to spend more time evaluating proposed capital improvement projects and their projected funding sources at the time of approval in the budget, not waiting until a contract shows up on their agenda.

To that end, Council member Lynn Hurtak made a motion and council approved scheduling a first of its kind special call (3 hour) workshop led by council’s budget analyst on March 3rd at 5pm. An opportunity for council and the public to review their FY27 priorities; to have a discussion on how best to use their time after the mayor’s budget presentation to make sure they give the full budget their attention. While not mentioned during the motion, I suspect the Citizen Budget Advisory Council will be included in the discussion if not a separate agenda item for their input.

And for those that have been reading me long enough you know I’ve hammered council for the amount of time they’ve spent debating a $1-$2 million social action/arts fund the last 2 years instead of the CIP. I’m also happy to report that Council member Hurtak also motioned for a workshop item for May 28th to hopefully address this for a final time but I’ll note there was a similar workshop last year prior to the budget presentation and council still got mired in it when it came to a decision. And this week’s workshop agenda is a good example of how an issue can arise that push off other important discussions. But it was purposely scheduled separate from the discussion for the special call workshop acknowledging the history.

I think if you care about who the next mayor and council is going to be, you should also care about the state of the budget they inherit. There will be debates on priorities. Force candidates to explain how they are going to pay for all of the promises. Vote for those that know the issues and can lay out a plan to deliver.

There are 8 months until fiscal year 2027 begins.