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Budget committee advances capital agenda review to formal session, places related reports on file
Summary
The Budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee voted without objection to send the legislative fiscal review of the proposed capital agenda to the City Council formal session with a recommendation to approve and to receive and place related responses on file as amended ahead of the March 1 deadline.
The Budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee advanced the administration's proposed capital agenda to the City Council formal session on a motion to send line item 5.1 (LPD fiscal review) to formal with a recommendation to approve, and it received and placed on file related items 5.1 through 5.4 and 6.4 through 6.6 as amended.
The matter is procedural but time-sensitive: staff said the March 1 submission deadline requires moving the item out of committee so it can appear on Tuesday's formal agenda. Donnie Johnson, deputy budget director for the City of Detroit, told the committee the capital agenda is a planning document, not an appropriation. "This document is not binding. It does not appropriate funds. It does not lock either the administration or the council into following it exactly as it is presented," Johnson said, adding the agenda serves as a roadmap for capital priorities.
Marcel Todd, deputy director of the Legislative Policy Division and director of the City Planning Commission, and LPD staff said they will prepare a short resolution for the formal session to record the council's receipt of administration recommendations and any council amendments. Todd and committee staff advised that additional edits or additions can still be made between the committee vote and formal session; the administration said it has historically accommodated council requests to add or change items prior to final consideration.
Committee members discussed the option of delaying action to a special session if more time were needed, but agreed the timeline made advancing the package preferable. The committee also directed staff to provide the formal resolution to the clerk by Friday to allow members adequate review time.
Ending: The committee's actions do not appropriate funds; they advance the proposed capital agenda and related materials to the City Council's formal session for final consideration and possible amendment.
