With chaos at home and abroad, I am grateful that this is usually the quieter lull of the year for the City Council. The School Board adopted their budget this week and City staff have been putting together the general government budget, which means we’re about a month out from […]
This week’s post will be short and sweet. (We had a two hour meeting, which is short by our standards.) Besides the affordable housing grants discussed last week, we also received an annual report from the CACT, our volunteer board on all things transportation. This is a good time to […]
Our work session this week was largely focused on exciting affordable housing initiatives on the horizon. We have been making remarkable progress in affordable housing in recent years and with the city successfully winning two rounds of Amazon grants totaling over $7M, we’ll be able to fund new priorities like […]
This week’s post will be a bit different. Unlike most City Council meetings, the most important topics this week are unrelated to any votes we cast: (1) The Fields apartments – this has been an increasingly frustrating situation, so I’ll share the latest and my thoughts. (2) Fiscal Impact Model […]
Thank you for the kind notes and input on my draft priorities last week. One of the top needs I’ve heard is improved pedestrian safety/traffic calming/sidewalks. Good transportation intersects with all other areas of local public policy – equity, climate, housing, economic development – you can’t care about one without […]
Happy 2022 – I hope you are staying healthy and well. City Council held our organizational meeting this week and elected new leadership. Mayor Tarter was re-elected and I was elected to serve as Vice Mayor for the next two years. It’s not something I’ve pursued or aspired to do, […]
As expected, our last City Council meeting of 2021 was packed, our first 1 am+ meeting in recent memory. We took a number of 7-0 votes, but this is another instance where the thorough discussion and differing opinions in the 6 hours may not be apparent behind unanimous votes. So […]
It’s been a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving, so there’s a lot of ground to cover – the budget, your tax bill next year, big votes coming up, and tacos. I’ll jump right in. This week’s post will cover: Annual joint session with the School Board – next year’s revenue […]
We had a jam-packed work session this week. We have three meetings left in 2021 and expect similarly heavy agendas before we recess in mid December for the holidays. For the non-night owls, the good news is that you can always catch recordings of our meetings (or read these posts) and […]
After the election, City Council was back in the saddle this week. Congratulations to my new and returning colleagues and a big thanks to all of the candidates who selflessly stepped forward to run for office. This week’s TL;DR: We covered one of my favorite regular topics – our City […]
It’s the final weekend before Election Day, so I hope you’ve either already voted or have plans to vote today/tomorrow/Tuesday. Yes, today and tomorrow are the last two days of early voting at City Hall – no excuse needed. Everything you need to know about Election Day is here and […]
This week’s update will be heavy on dollars and cents. If you care about the city’s finances, how we fared during the COVID year, or the plans for the federal COVID relief money we’re receiving, I hope you’ll read on. Sometimes budget-speak makes eyes glaze over, so I’ve been committed […]