Schipske, Uranga, Gabelich to call for more budget meetings

Remember last year's city budget process, when city officials scheduled budget workshops and meetings right before their regular council meetings? Remember the long lines of residents who wanted to speak but ended up being rushed? Remember how council members didn't have time to ask all their questions and the budget meetings went over schedule? Remember how city management promised this year it would be different?

Well, it hasn't quite worked out that way, and Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske said tonight during a community budget meeting in her 5th District that she and council members Tonia Reyes Uranga and Rae Gabelich tomorrow will release a statement calling for at least two budget sessions each week until the council approves a budget Sept. 15.

Sure, the city has scheduled a dozen community meetings that council members and city managers are attending to explain the proposed budget, the $20.3 million in cuts that are being made, and to get feedback from residents. That seems a good step toward the promise of more transparency and public input in the budget process. But at Tuesday's budget workshop, when the council was discussing library and parks budgets, the meeting again went over, public comments had to be reduced from three minutes to two minutes and not all of the council members had time to ask their questions.

Apparently, another budget meeting, where council members would actually be able to vote and take action (not like a workshop, which is just for information and discussion), had been originally planned for later Tuesday at 7 p.m. For some reason, it was taken off the schedule, apparently, according to Schipske, without consulting the council.

Now Schipske says she and her colleagues want more meetings, actionable meetings, and enough time to get all of their questions answered -- not to mention make some budget decisions of enormous magnitude.