🕘 Call to order (Ne0:37)
Purpose: craft an alternate budget version to fund fire/police pay via cuts/reallocations + modest tax increase and place it on the agenda.

🧭 Framing & Tools (1:02–4:03)

• Council can appropriate by department (not line-item) per TCA; budget must balance.
• Staff provided list of vacant, budgeted positions (~$18M). After excluding in-process/critical roles, ~$3.9M could be frozen (no layoffs) to reduce impact.

🧮 Original Hill draft (14:06–19:51)

• Goal: meet “halfway” on fire/police raises with existing dollars + modest new revenue.
• No cuts to: Police, Fire, Public Works, Parks.
• Leadership skin-in-the-game: 10% cuts to City Council & Mayor’s Office.
• Community Development (CD): initially 15% cut to recalibrate programs.
• Identified $10.1M reductions; pair with $5M already set aside → ~half of raises.
• Modeled 13–14¢ increase (to 1.68–1.69 millage) for the rest.

🔥 Debate highlights (6:14–1:17:18)

• Several members oppose blanket % cuts without line-item impacts; warn of service hits & jobs.
• Strong objections to cutting Community Development (centers, equity/early learning supports).
• Henderson: intent is shared pain (taxpayers & depts.); use vacancies to avoid layoffs.
• Process concern: some expected line-item workshop; this session focused on departmental top-lines.
• Station 21 (apparatus + staffing, ~$4M) raised as ISO 1 risk; not included in either plan yet.

✅ Consensus for the Alternate Version (1:18:01–1:34:31)

Target millage: 1.69 (≈ +14¢ over 1.55) → ~$15M new revenue.
Use extra ≈$2.1M (vs earlier 12¢ model) to reverse key reductions:

• Keep whole (no cuts): Police, Fire, Public Works, Parks & Outdoors, Community Development, Early Learning.
• Restore Community Development (~$1.657M) fully.
• Restore Early Learning (~$167k).
• Remaining ~$368k split between Executive Branch & IT to cushion operations (e.g., FJC front desk).

Fire/Police raises: fully funded via mix of reallocations/freezes and the 1.69 rate.
Vacancies freeze to prioritize avoiding layoffs.

⚖️ Legal/Process (1:38:01–1:44:50)

• City Attorney: Budget must balance; council must fix tax rate now that assessor certified 1.55.
• Appropriations can be by department; mayor must propose amendments if revenues fall short.

🧱 Outcome

• Sponsors (Henderson + Davis) set Alternate Version targeting 1.69 with the restorations above.
• Hill to update the digital amendment document and circulate (including to administration).
• Station 21 needs separate action in either plan.

🔜 What’s next

• Alternate version will be placed on the agenda for public debate/votes alongside administration’s 1.99 proposal.
• Members requested clearer impact detail and continued discussion on multi-year funding (COLAs, apparatus).

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