Tonight’s first of two back-to-back City Council meetings to x-ray the budget for the new fiscal year has been elevated above the dust-dry level:
The opening sally of the 7 o’clock meeting will be a 45-minute power-point presentation of findings from a May 22-24 telephone survey to determine community receptiveness to a half-cent sales tax hike, which would be placed on the November ballot.
Nobody is talking about the findings, although City Manager John Nachbar acknowledged this morning that they are “generally positive,” supportive of an increase to help narrow the budget gap.
Following the City Council’s anticipated enthusiastic unanimous endorsement of such a scheme, community meetings are expected to be scheduled before the Council would formally put the proposal on the Presidential election ballot.
Mr. Nachbar is ordering hard copies of the survey results for distribution this evening.
Afterward, budgets for the City Manager’s office, the City Attorney, Information Technology, Human Resources, Finance, Transportation, and Parks and Recreation will be presented.
Tuesday night’s 6:30 Council budget study session will cover the Police Dept., Fire Dept., Community Development Dept., and Public Works.
