December 22, 2025
Budget Wins for Our Ward
On December 3, after months of deliberation, the City Council adopted its 2026 budget. I’m proud of the transparent, inclusive budget process we ran - conducting community engagement sessions all over the city, holding a budget workshop where we discussed our proposed amendments publicly, sticking to our publicly advertised schedule, and working with the Mayor’s office early and often to iron out any controversies and avoid last-minute wrangling.
I’m also thrilled about the citywide investments we were able to make - preventing cuts to our Fire, Library and Parks and Rec departments, preserving library and rec center hours, continuing our hugely successful Commercial Corridor Organizational Assistance Program (CCOAP) for neighborhood main streets and more.
I’m especially proud of the Ward 2-specific investments I was able to secure. Here are a few of them:
A $5 million Downtown Vitality Fund - The Mayor’s original budget proposal included $5 million for office-to-housing conversions downtown. But I know from conversations with you and with partners like the Downtown Alliance that developing more housing isn’t enough. We also need better amenities - specifically, retail options - for people who live and work downtown today. Making it easier for new businesses to open or for existing retailers to expand or enhance their street presence means better services for people downtown right now and it helps attract new jobs and residents in the future. So I reworked the proposal to create a Downtown Vitality Fund that will support both residential development and street-level retail.
Lights on Shepard Road - For too long, Shepard Road has lain in darkness, creating a safety hazard for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike. The problem is a particularly expensive one because, in order to keep the lights on, we need to actually replace the current lights with new poles that will deter copper wire theft. With your help (thank you for all the emails and phone calls!), we secured $750K in this year’s budget to light Shepard from Sibley to Eagle Streets. I will keep pushing for funding to light the rest of the street in the future.
Parking Enforcement Officers - When people park illegally, overstay their meters or don’t pay them at all, or park in permit parking areas without a permit, it creates a host of problems - from safety to accessibility to a lack of on-street parking when cars don’t turn over after their time runs up. We have too few parking enforcement officers (PEOs) to enforce parking meters and permit parking areas, and the original 2026 budget proposed to cut two more PEOs. Not only would this deal a blow to our efforts to curb illegal parking, it would also stymie our attempts to diversify our police department, as our parking enforcement team is a prime entrypoint into the police force for young, diverse candidates. I successfully fought to keep the two PEOs that were proposed for cuts and to add an additional PEO to beef up our enforcement capacity.
Community Prosecutor - The majority of quality of life crimes that we see in our neighborhoods - panhandling, indecent exposure, gambling, drug possession, disorderly behavior, etc - are best addressed by a community prosecutor. A community prosecutor can give these crimes the attention they deserve, understand the circumstances that led to the behavior and help the perpetrator get the services they need to prevent the behavior from recurring. This year’s budget allocates $175K for a community prosecutor, which will be paid for through a grant from the Downtown Alliance. I’m excited about this partnership and its potential to significantly decrease quality of life crimes in our neighborhoods.
- District Council funding - This one isn’t specific to Ward 2, but it’s going to make a big difference so I wanted to highlight it. Our District Councils do heroic work addressing neighborhood-scale problems and involving residents in advocacy, volunteering and learning opportunities - but they have been underfunded for far too long. This year’s budget increases District Council funding and ensures no funding comes from federal grants which are increasingly unreliable and which bring additional complexity and reporting requirements, creating needless headaches for hardworking District Council staff. With these changes, our District Councils will be able to spend less time on paperwork and more time on critical community needs.
I believe this budget sets us up for success in 2026 and beyond and I’m looking forward to the year ahead. Wishing you and your family a very safe and happy holiday season!