There are few public meetings this week, but a lot of crucial decisions on the 2021 budget will happen behind the scenes.
Monday morning’s Council Briefing will include a discussion with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations on the city’s lobbying agenda for the 2021 state legislative session. There will also be an executive session with the city’s attorney to discuss pending litigation.
Monday afternoon’s full City Council meeting is scheduled to include final votes on:
- a bill approving a 99-year lease for the old Fire Station 6 building to the Africatown Community Land Trust;
- a bill approving the transfer of the Central Area Senior Center property to the non-profit that has operated the senior center for many years;
- several appointments to the Design Review Board and Construction Codes Advisory Board.
This week’s Introduction and Referral Calendar includes the following new pieces of legislation:
- a bill giving the City Clerk more discretion on how to conduct elections for the members of the Civil Service Commission and Public Safety Civil Service Commission that are elected by city employees, including potentially allowing for electronic balloting; and pushing out the 2020 election (which normally would be happening this week) until early December.
- several appointments to various Preservation and Development Authorities;
- a bill (placeholder, for now) officially adopting a city budget for 202.
The Council’s budget committee is not scheduled to hold any meetings this week; instead, budget chair Teresa Mosqueda will be assembling her “chair’s balancing package” of proposed Council amendments to the Mayor’s proposed budget. Mosqueda is expected to release her balancing package on November 10.
However, early this coming week the City Budget Office is expected to provide an update on 2020 city revenues and projections for 2021, which will give Mosqueda and the Council a new revenue target to budget expenses against.
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