Organizers press council to fund participatory budgeting, crisis‑response team and meet‑and‑confer policy

Representatives of the Raleigh People's Budget Assembly, Refund Raleigh and allied groups urged the council to adopt a set of budget and governance changes that organizers said would shift resources toward community control and away from traditional policing budgets.

“Let 2025 be the year Raleigh residents have real power over our money,” Nikquay Williams of Refund Raleigh told the council, calling for a participatory‑budgeting model that gives residents greater control over project design and spending decisions.

Speakers asked the council to fund a community crisis‑response team independent of the police and to institute a regular meet‑and‑confer process for unionized city workers to meet with the city manager. Angaza Laughing House of the People's Budget Assembly argued the city failed to fund a decoupled crisis response in the current budget despite survey responses that favored such a model.

Organizers cited budget allocations as evidence of priorities: one speaker said the police budget grew by $30 million since 2021 while housing and neighborhood budgets grew by about $4 million in the same period. Speakers asked the council to honor prior affordable‑housing commitments and to expand funding for emergency services such as sheltering and community‑led crisis teams.

The groups said their demands are concrete and repeatedly asked for the council to fund them in the coming budget cycle. Council did not act during public comment; organizers said they will return to upcoming meetings to press for implementation and accountability.