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Committee advances multiple carryover allocations, including legal aid and housing investments
Summary
The committee approved a five-signature omnibus carryover (version b) allocating funds to immigration and eviction legal services, Access to Counsel, the West End sports bar project, and other community priorities; members also approved several standalone motions (YWCA shelter funds, Black Family Reunion, fleet transfers) and debated tradeoffs amid limited carryover resources.
The Budget, Finance and Governance committee moved several FY25 carryover allocations in a long session that centered on competing priorities and limited available funds.
Council member James presented a five-signature omnibus (version b) that, after amendments, allocated funds across multiple community initiatives including legal services for immigrants and tenants, support for a West End sports bar and grill, and other social-service and neighborhood projects. After discussion, amendments and procedural votes, the committee approved the b version on a recorded roll call.
Council members described the omnibus as a way to protect vulnerable residents and support community development. "This funding will support community efforts to protect Cincinnatians facing eviction as well as the final allocation to support the long anticipated family friendly business, West End Bar and Grill," James said. The motion included a late friendly amendment removing a $10,000 item for the Free Store Food Bank to be drafted separately.
Separately, the committee approved an administration ordinance (item 7) that allocated $200,000 from the special-events reserve ($100,000 each for the Black Family Reunion and the Abercrombie Group) and moved approximately $1,000,000 in capital allocations to fleet replacements; that motion passed on roll call. The committee also approved a $200,000 allocation from capital project reserves for the YWCA to complete urgent shelter improvements for domestic-violence survivors (item 8).
Some council members urged procedural caution: several said the council should develop clearer criteria and an application process for the new special-events bucket to avoid ad hoc decisions. Others pressed that housing and services needs are urgent and that approved projects — including Habitat for Humanity’s West End proposal — should not be delayed. Vice Mayor Kearney and other members argued for moving quickly on housing and community investments.
Votes on some items were split or tied and will be refiled next week (for example, the Cincinnati Music Festival request tied 4-4 and cannot be reconsidered at the same meeting). The committee adjourned after recording multiple outcomes and instructing the administration to prepare contracting and reporting steps for approved allocations.
