Council president files resolution to park roughly $10 million in strategic initiative funds for next budget

Council President Kevin Carico asked the Finance Committee on Jan. 6 to file a resolution directing the mayor to place approximately $10,019,005.91 in a contingency account for council strategic initiatives in the FY27 budget instead of identifying specific projects now.

Carico said he wanted to preserve flexibility for the incoming council president. "So I'm opting just to let that go into the budget," he told the committee, adding that he had previously reallocated $5 million this year to a youth-empowerment effort.

The council auditor, Kim Taylor, provided the numeric basis for the proposal, telling members the set-aside represents "point 5% of your general fund GST budget" and supplying the precise figure to the committee.

Several council members objected to leaving allocation authority to the finance committee or a future president. Councilmember Matt Carlucci argued the original strategic-plan exercise was meant to let all 19 members weigh in directly. "The strategic plan was a chance for all council members to say what was important to them, not just 1 committee," he said, voicing concern that a committee-driven allocation would be less inclusive.

Other speakers, including Ron Salem and Council Vice President Hallen, said the approach simply eliminates an initial step and that council members will still have opportunities during the formal budget and wrap-up processes to pursue district priorities. Mary Stifopoulos, counsel, explained that the rules chair makes initial committee referrals and the council president can add committees if warranted.

By the end of the discussion the committee agreed to file a finance-committee resolution the following day to memorialize the plan and to request the administration include the contingency amount in its FY27 budget submission. That resolution will proceed through the regular committee process before final council action.

What happens next: The Finance Committee will formally introduce the resolution at the next filing cycle and the administration will receive the request to include the contingency in the FY27 proposed budget by the February 15 deadline, per the counsel'staff guidance.

Why it matters: The move sets aside a substantial pool of discretionary funds early in the budget cycle, reducing the need to reallocate other budget lines later but raising governance questions about how and by whom the dollars will be allocated.