Rochester City Council Announces Review Process For 2020-21 City Budget

Press release from the City of Rochester:

May 15, 2020

Councilmember
Malik D. Evans, Chair of City Council’s Finance Committee, announced today that the Council has scheduled its review process for the Mayor’s proposed 2020-21 City Budget. The City Council conducts the most extensive public analysis of any local municipal budget, convening a process that consists of individual departmental review sessions and a public hearing before the final budget vote.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Council has made the decision to conduct Budget Hearings via videoconference that will be broadcast live on YouTube, Facebook, and Cable Channel 1303. Broadcasting the Budget Hearings provides interested City residents and business owners an opportunity to watch the Council’s in-depth review of the Mayor’s proposed spending plan.

“Council takes very seriously our responsibility of reviewing the 2020-21 Budget released by Mayor Warren today. We intend to engage, as we do every year, in a thoughtful review of the Budget despite the accommodations we will make following health department guidance that discourages large gatherings. I am grateful for our City’s fiscal stewardship, over the past decades, the Mayor and Council, along with those who preceded us, ensured we had a fund balance policy that would prepare us for a rainy day. That rainy day has arrived, and our City is positioned better than many others across the Country. Based on my initial review of the Budget I am pleased to see that the vital services to our community will stay intact, that food services to our residents will be
continued at present levels, and I want to assure residents that the Council will join the Administration in efforts to actively lobby for additional State and Federal dollars to provide much needed relief to our City and its residents,” said Council President Loretta C. Scott.

Constituents will also have an opportunity to offer comments about the proposed budgets for the City of Rochester and the City School District at a joint public hearing to be held by the City Council and the Board of Education on Wednesday, June 10th at 5:30pm., details on participation will be forthcoming, and will be made available on the City’s website at www.cityofrochester.gov/publicmeetings. The Council is expected to vote on both of the City’s and School District’s proposed spending plans at its June 16,2020 meeting.

Copies of the proposed Budget are available for review online (www.cityofrochester.gov/citybudget/). The public is encouraged to contact the Council Office at (585) 428-7538 or council@cityofrochester.gov if they have questions about the review process.

In addition to Councilmember Evans, the Finance Committee is comprised of Councilmembers Michael A. Patterson and LaShay D. Harris; President Loretta C. Scott and Vice President Willie J. Lightfoot serve as ex-officio members.

Listed below is the schedule for the 2020-21 Budget hearings and related meetings. All hearings and meetings are currently planned to be held on videoconference and details will be available at www.cityofrochester.gov/publicmeetings.

June 3rd
Hearings All Day

9:00am – 9:15am –
Council/Clerk

9:15am – 11:00am – Administration

11:05am – 12:45pm – Department of Environmental
Services

12:45pm – 1:45pm – Lunch Recess

1:50pm – 2:40pm – Rochester Fire Department

2:45pm – 4:00pm – Department of Recreation and
Youth Services

4:05pm – 5:00pm – Emergency Communications

June 9th
Hearings All Day

9:00am – 9:15am – Undistributed/Contingency

9:20am – 10:15am – Information Technology

10:20am – 11:15am – Finance

11:20am – 12:00pm – Library

12:05pm – 1:05pm – Lunch Recess

1:10pm – 3:10pm – Rochester Police Department

3:15pm – 5:00pm – Department of Neighborhood and
Business
Development

June 10th

9:00am – 3:30pm – Hold for Adjourned Hearings

3:30pm – Rochester School District Budget

5:30pm – Joint Public Hearing with the Rochester
City School Board

June 11th

4:00pm – Finance Committee Meeting
(Only if needed will an Adjourned Finance Committee Meeting be held at the end
of regular Committee Meetings)

June 16th

7:30pm – City Council Meeting

This press release was produced by the City of Rochester. The views expressed here are the author’s own.