Starting at 4 o’clock this afternoon, City Council newcomers Göran Eriksson and Thomas Small will be introduced to the long, winding, sometimes tedious task of reviewing the budget for the fiscal year that starts in six weeks.
The least popular Council task of the year draws anywhere from none to two audience members.
Inspecting the budget will be somewhat familiar territory for Mr. Eriksson, a business entrepreneur who has chaired the Financial Advisory Committee – to wide praise – the past three years.
He knows finance, but this is a starkly different roadmap.
When contacted yesterday afternoon, Mr. Eriksson was wading through the deep, dark waters of the budget that contains hundreds of arcane intersections and nuances.
Mr. Eriksson has had only one regular Council meeting to warm up for today’s herculean assignment.
His first Council meeting was quite different from his Financial Advisory Committee outings. “The committee has nine people, and it is more like a working group,” he said.
They operated more by the calendar than the clock. The Council does the opposite.
“People and ideas are going back and forth on the committee,” he said. “On the Council, you want to come to a decision more quickly.”
Last time Mr. Eriksson talked about learning the intricacies of meeting-preparation by consulting former Council members.
For this week’s sessions, however, he has been plunging ahead on his own.
“I have been studying this year’s budget, comparing it to last year, seeing how the goals and ideas compared,” Mr. Eriksson said. “The budget is a document with a lot of different departments and specialties.”
Therefore, it is time for the new Councilman to ring off and resume his preparation.
