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Committee to seek one-week review of proposed earlier start to budget hearings
Summary
Members of the Budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee agreed to bring back calendar items next week to consider moving the start of the 2025 budget hearings from March 12 to March 6 to allow more deliberation; staff and committee members flagged knock-on effects for CDBG/block grant scheduling.
The Detroit City Council Budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee on Wednesday voted to bring back calendar items next week to consider shifting the start of the 2025 budget hearings to Thursday, March 6, rather than the previously scheduled March 12. The motion to return items for further discussion passed with no objections.
Committee members said the change would give the council more time to deliberate department budgets after Mayor’s delivery of the budget on Feb. 28. “We would start on 6th March, which would provide 4 additional days of budget deliberations,” Councilmember Benson said, adding the shift would provide “21% more time for deliberations.”
The move is intended to give council members—and Legislative Policy Division (LPD) staff—extra days to prepare and to spread department presentations over more sessions. “It gives LPD more time to start presenting those budget reports,” Benson said.
Staff and members raised scheduling conflicts and downstream impacts. LPD staff and the council clerk warned that moving the hearings earlier would affect CDBG/block grant scheduling. “If we change the schedule to start on 6th, it will greatly impact block grant,” Miss Barcliff told the committee, urging members to consider whether some block-grant hearings could be scheduled the week before. LPD and administration staff confirmed they were willing to support hearings beginning March 6 if the council so decides. “We are willing to have those hearings ... start on Thursday, March 6th,” Mr. Corley said.
Some members asked for more time to consult colleagues and committee chairs before a final vote. “This decision doesn't have to be made today,” Benson acknowledged; the committee agreed to return the calendar items in one week so members can review schedules and consult chairs of impacted standing committees, including Planning and Economic Development and Neighborhood Services.
The committee also asked staff to evaluate how moving the budget hearings would affect standing committees’ public hearings and to coordinate with the administration on CDBG timing. The motion brought multiple calendar resolutions back for discussion next week, and members said they will try to avoid changing the end date of the deliberations while adding the earlier start day.
The committee did not adopt a final calendar at the meeting; it only voted to bring the calendar items back for consideration in one week.
