Gary City finance committee reviews special‑revenue budgets; Marquette Park cuts and media fund draw scrutiny

The Gary City finance committee on Tuesday reviewed a wide range of special‑revenue budgets and asked administration officials for more detailed revenue estimates and contingency plans.

Kiana Grant, director of the mayor’s office of constituent services, told the committee her office will be split out of the city’s unified media fund to create a distinct constituent‑services budget. Grant said the city reconfigured its Gary 311 system in February, reducing request types from 430 to 35 to simplify resident reporting and adding prompts and ordinance text so callers know what they are selecting. She described a 24–48 hour response policy for staff handling 311 requests and listed planned investments including social‑media management tools, online ticketing, graphic‑design and email‑marketing software, and roughly $18,000 a year for public‑access streaming software.

An unidentified communications presenter earlier told the committee that the administration proposes $20,000 for advertising and $10,000 for sponsorships in the media fund; "previously our advertising budget was 0," the presenter said, arguing digital ad spend will expand the city’s reach in a…