8/4/2026 Common Council Meeting Introduction From the Floor and Subsequent Budget Amendment Proposal - Background and Process

Motivation, Intentions, and Introduction

I want to share as much background as I can into my decision-making on the night of 8/4/26 and the process from the original intent of the proposal to the woefully inadequate form (Legistar File # 94261) that will go before Finance Committee today (8/31/26)

The morning of the August 4th Common Council Meeting, I woke up to videos showing the clearing of the encampment and arrests that followed, text messages informing me that folks belongings had been moved to Demetral Park in my District, and phone calls from concerned neighbors. As soon as I could inform my supervisor at my full-time job and ask to move some work meetings, I went to Demetral Park where an incredible group of volunteers had already come together. I spent some time helping go through large boxes of belongings and supplies, sorting items, and securing them against the potential rain in the forecast for that afternoon. The foresight and direction of those community members preserved folks belongings as much as possible and stood up a space where (for a short time) folks could be in community together.

Later in the day, after seeing additional video of ongoing police response at Willy St and Baldwin, I went to the intersection for a short time. During that time, there was a smaller police presence than I had seen in videos from earlier in the day and a smaller group of folks were marching around the intersection. Within 30 minutes of my leaving the intersection to check back in at Demetral before the council meeting, police presence at Willy St and Baldwin escalated again. Again there were videos and photos shared of arrests, including a smaller young woman I had just seen peacefully protesting who was maced and taken to the ground.

The common council meeting saw hundreds of folks sign-up and give public comment for over 6 hours. I've seen some mention that there was template language and some comments were repetitive, but in listening to those comments back-to-back they all had unique details and perspectives. Folks shared their pain, anger, loss of trust, and personal experiences with excessive force. Overwhelmingly public comments asked the council to 'fully fund' the Office of the Independent monitor. I am guessing this language is what was referred to as repetitive, but each ask came within a message that was deeply personal to each constituent who spoke. Many folks also mentioned deviating from their prepared remarks due to the clearing of the encampment and the escalation that followed throughout the day.

My Initial Proposal Called For: 

1. A full accounting of the additional police costs incurred between 7/22/2026 and our next council meeting on 9/8/2026 
2. For the dollar amount of that police spending to be authorized for use by the Office of the Independent Monitor in 2026 for needed investigation related to the use of force throughout 8/4/2026 (for example) or to study and put together policy recommendations related to the duty outlined in 5.19 -7a of the OIM Ordinance.

3 Key Motivations Led to This Initial Proposal on 8/4:

1. The need for the council to have a full understanding of the budget impacts of the heightened police response  and hope that bringing attention to the cost over the next month could lead to any restraint on the planned response. These decisions were made without the authorization of the council even though we have been warned and constrained (rightfully) at every possible decision-making point in the 2026 budget process of the significance of ERIP and the very limited cushion we have this year.
2. August is one of the few months where there is only one council meeting. We don't meet again for over a month during a time of crisis for the community. There is additional time to work out the details of a proposal and while 2 weeks may seem insignificant, being able to take some kind of action on 9/8/26 instead of 9/22/26 is worth working toward.
3. Given the extreme change in circumstances for the community starting with the clearing of the encampment at 4am this morning (8/4/26), I don't think it is right that the only action taken would be a large increase in police response to protests (that we had no say over) and at our next meeting voting ONLY on a resolution to help the local businesses.

Process, Budget Limitations, Resolution Ask

• On Friday 8/7/26 , All Alders and the Mayor received an update email on the cost of response: "Preliminary estimates of costs in response to the July 22nd event have been revised to approximately $1 million.  This is primarily estimated MPD overtime (OT) costs based on response activities over the past few days and the anticipated on-going response over the next few weeks."
• Right after getting this update email, I meet with Finance staff for the first time to discuss my resolution intent, what I needed for the draft language, and the limitations of our annual budget. I noted my understanding that this would be one-time funds
  • Limitations that shaped the final resolution ask
    • Any funds transferred to the OIM in the 2026 budget need to be spent in 2026 for work completed in 2026
    • Hiring  additional staff would take too long and any resolution for the 2026 budget would only provide funding for this year. Any hypothetical position would not be guaranteed to be included in the 2027 budget
    • Larger contracts require a bid process that would take too long and due to the even worse circumstances for the 2027 budget, could not carry forward into 2027
    • **Edited to add: The exact costs of the police response will not be known until payroll processes for the time period given in my initial proposal. Also, since the proposal itself is calling for that accounting to be shared with us, it can't also be used as a goal amount to meet with the same resolution.
  • It was immediately clear that even if there were no other budget concerns it would not be possible to give the OIM $1 Million dollars at this time of the year and for them to be able to actually use it by year end. In addition to all the reasons listed above, the size of the office is another limitation to being able to utilize emergency funds
• The following week I met with IM Glass to see where funds could definitely be used this year and if it could be possible to contract out some investigatory work on a smaller scale to help with the increasing workload
• By 8/17/26, I had some preliminary numbers and knew at a minimum I would be asking for funds to send additional folks to NACOLE this year and that the only area to potentially build additional work capacity within the office would be authorizing additional work hours for the .6 FTE Data analyst position (limited to the remainder of 2026)
  • These 2 funding areas makeup the $28,500 that made it into the final ask that will be considered at the 8/31/26 Finance Committee meeting
• Throughout the week of 8/17/26 I had continued conversations with various city staff
• On 8/24/26, I met with Finance staff to finalize the resolution language and ask some follow-up questions relating to ERIP and any broader contingency planning the city had to avoid penalties if there were city emergencies later in the year
  • At this time it was confirmed that my funding ask would have to come from the Contingent Reserve
  • **Edited to add: It was also mentioned that the $1 Million projection for police response may actually end up being an estimate through the end of the year, rather than just the past few weeks. It will likely fall somewhere in between and more information will be shared when the most recent pay periods with overtime are done processing.
  • There was also additional discussion of allocating funds for smaller scale contracting and additional questions were raised
• I was not able to get together enough detail to move forward with the contracting ask before the draft deadline. This idea also had it's own challenges because it would be essentially a new process to be spun up in time to be meaningful before the end of the year and as there weren't previous cases to easily pull example cost information from, getting those details together to be able to justify asking for a larger total amount of funding was difficult with the short timeframe. 
  • Also from the limited (to stay within quorum rules) conversations I had with other Alders, I knew any amount being pulled from contingent reserve would already be a difficult ask and decided to stick with the 2 clear and minimal items 

District 10 Alder Figueroa Cole wrote an extremely informative blog which was published last night that goes into deeper detail on the budget process, contingent reserve, and overall limitations we have to consider. I encourage folks who want a greater understanding of the process to read her blog post. I do want to share 2 additional bits of context to keep in mind while reading:

1. The Mid-year update given at the 7/27/26 Finance Committee Meeting included a projection for a $4 Million surplus including the remaining $1.6 Million of unspent Contingent Reserve funds and a projected $2.4 Million in net agency underspending and centrally budgeted benefits funding. This $4 Million total surplus does not include the cost of additional police response since 8/4/26, but shows there is some additional cushion expected beyond the regular Contingent Reserve funds.
2. My budget resolution only authorizes the OIM Data Analyst to work additional hours up to a 1.0 FTE through the end of 2026. This isn't something that would 'make the role full-time' permanently, just authorize additional hours in response to an emergency situation which continues to increase the work needed from the OIM.