It was truly amazing to participate in the council deliberations last night. We worked together without rancor or nasty comments on restoring some of the cuts made to the budget by Mayor Foster and City Manager West.
Granted we were there til midnight and we still have more to do. But we made progress on restoring cuts to fire and police, library, recreation and infrastructure. Looks as if Station 18 will remain open all day long. But it isn't over yet.
We knocked back a proposal to go forward with digital billboards in redevelopment areas (again).
Four of us worked over the weekend on finding sources of revenue to restore cuts. Those four are: me, Councilmembers Gabelich, Uranga, and Garcia. We brought the proposals to the budget hearing and placed them on an overhead slide so the public could see what we were proposing.
The Council Budget oversight committee comprised of Councilmembers O'Donnell, Lowenthal and DeLong also had a list of restorations -- surprisingly our restorations matched in many places with the major exception that our 4 restored cuts to the Police Department.
Was the process perfect? No. But for the first time since I have been on the Council, there was deliberation, discussion and compromise in a professional, respectful manner. And that was worth the price of admission to the event.
