Council debates mayor’s discretionary budget and festival funding; approves $5,000 to Cultural Trust

Council members spent a lengthy portion of the meeting debating proposed changes to the mayor’s discretionary budget and how the city should allocate event funding.

Finance discussion began with Councilman Gorman proposing raising the mayor’s budget from $50,000 to $60,000 and allocating $30,000 for fireworks, $10,000 for Juneteenth and four $5,000 allocations to the city’s major festivals. Gorman said those events “bring people into town” and help the community; he proposed formalizing the funding in the budget.

Councilman Mayo objected that the proposal selectively funded some events while excluding the African Heritage Festival and other community celebrations. “Well, I can see this for the African heritage fest, African American communities is 20% of this community. We're giving them nothing,” Mayo said, arguing for either funding all major festivals equitably or none. Several members raised concerns about documentation and oversight for recipients; Ms. Hoover suggested raising the overall mayor’s budget but requiring festival requests to be vetted through the mayor’s office with documentation.

Council decided not to finalize the mayor’s budget at the meeting and to wait for department heads and budget hearings to complete the review. Separately, Mr. Hernon moved and Mr. Albaugh seconded a $5,000 donation to the Steubenville Cultural Trust; the motion passed 6–1 (Walker opposed) and was declared carried by Mayor Barilla.

Next steps: the mayor’s overall budget proposal will be resolved after full budget hearings. The $5,000 award to the Cultural Trust will be disbursed per the city’s appropriation process.