Explainer: See what each of the 14 budget amendments council considered Tuesday does

Jun. 13—The Norman City Council's nine-hour Tuesday meeting ended with an approved budget, but much of the night was spent parsing through 14 budget amendments, many of them significant.

For readers who missed Tuesday's meeting or still have questions about the conversations they watched, The Transcript worked through the 14 amendments, most of which passed, to explain what each will do for the city and what councilors or residents thought of it.

Keep reading to learn more about Tuesday's votes:

1. "I move that grammatical and typographical corrections to the Budget documents, with no financial impact, be made as necessary."

The first amendment is more straightforward than most on the agenda; the council passed it quickly and unanimously.

2. "I move to increase the General Fund, City Council budget by $100,000 for membership in Neighborhood Alliance."

The amendment allows Norman to pay $100,000 to join the Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma, an organization that works to create stronger neighborhoods by improving food security, local health care and neighborhood leadership. The amendment, which passed unanimously, received one favorable public comment.

3. "I move to increase Capital Fund allocations by $30,000 for historical markers/signs."

This amendment allocates $30,000 to fund unspecified historical markers and signs around Norman. Norman resident Andy Rieger presented a number of ideas for marker sites during a May 25 council meeting.

The amendment passed unanimously, and while residents generally expressed support for the action, some shared considerations for the council during public comments.

"I just want to stress that historical accuracy is taken into account," Ward 4 resident Amanda Franklyn said. "...As a nation, we have a tendency to whitewash our history, and in Norman we've been guilty of that too, so I think that should definitely be considered."

Councilors suggested building a diverse committee to decide where the markers will go and what they'll say, along with consulting local tribal nations to ensure accuracy. Several affirmed Tuesday that full historical context is a priority for the city when creating the signage.

4. "I move to increase Community Development Block Grant Fund allocations to the Property Owner Rehabilitation Program by $13,663"

This amendment officially allocates money the city received from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

5. "I move to decrease Fire Department Allocations in the General Fund by $841,486 and in the Public Safety Sales Tax Fund by $220,109 and reduce General Fund Transfer to the Public Safety Sales Tax Fund by $220,109."

This amendment, passed unanimously, officially fixed an accounting error in the FY22 budget that had mistakenly combined two projected expense categories in the city's fire department budget.

Because the city did not discover the error until the budget had already been presented to the council, Norman could only right the mistake through a formal budget amendment, City Finances Director Anthony Francisco told The Transcript.

"This decrease is a clean-up item due to inadvertently double-counting these funds — nothing is being reduced from the fire department or police department as a result of this amendment," Mayor Breea Clark said Tuesday.

6. "I move to increase Risk Management Fund allocations by $652,700 for projected Worker's Compensation costs"

This amendment pulls money from enterprise funds and the city's general fund to increase funding for worker's compensation settlements. The amendment passed unanimously.

7. "I move to increase Capital Fund allocations by $5,353,488 for Street Maintenance Bond projects."

This amendment — which passed unanimously — officially allocates money approved in a street maintenance bond that residents voted on and passed in April. The street maintenance bond is a $27 million bond project that will not raise taxes and will repair streets.

8. "I move to increase Capital Fund allocations by $745,608 for the East Alameda Street Safety/ Widening Bond Project."

This amendment passed unanimously, and will allocate nearly $746,000 toward widening East Alameda Street and making the road safer.

9. "I move to decrease Capital Fund allocations by $753,600 for Vineyard Addition Flood Control Project."

This project failed after over two hours of discussion and debate between council members and stormwater experts. Only two council members voted in favor of it, and the council said it plans to revisit the item at a later date.

This amendment would have cut a flood control project from the capital fund to the tune of $753,600. Ward 3 Alison Petrone has expressed concern that cutting this project would not be fair to other communities experiencing stormwater issues.

10. "I move to increase General Fund allocations to the City Council Department budget by $1,000,000 for a pilot Participatory Budgeting program."

This item, introduced by Ward 6 Elizabeth Foreman, would have allowed residents to be part of the budgeting process and decide how to spend the allocated money in the community.

Participatory Budgeting is a program that has been tested in large cities including New York City; Foreman said she learned about the program through her graduate classes in public administration at the University of Oklahoma. The money would have come from a combination of funds previously earmarked for community programs and additional money from the general fund.

While the amendment failed 7-2, with only Foreman and Studley voting in favor, councilors said they often receive resident requests for small projects that aren't covered in big budget items and could be tackled with participatory budgeting in the future. Councilors said they'd like to continue conversations about participatory budgeting and possibly launch a smaller pilot project, but want more specifics and planning before they pursue the program.

"For me personally, I would like to definitely see us continue to pursue this, do our due diligence, develop a process — I'm not sure we're ready to fund this tonight, but I definitely want to use the structures that we have in place on City Council to start really moving through this like we do other new, creative ideas that we bring forward," Ward 4 Lee Hall said Tuesday.

11. "I move to increase General Fund allocations to the Police Department by $6,000 for the acquisition of data analysis software."

This amendment, which passed unanimously, funds new software to allow the public to better view and understand public police data.

Norman Police Department Chief Kevin Foster said Tuesday that currently, the only data available to the public is raw data, which can sometimes be hard to consume for the layperson. With this new software, residents can manipulate data into graphs and charts to better read, break up and see public police data.

12. "I move to increase General Fund allocations to the Planning and Community Dev. Dept. by $80,000 for services to individuals experiencing homelessness."

This budget amendment passed unanimously, and will use $80,000 to keep the city's emergency warming shelter open through October 26, 2021, when the city lease for the at 325 E. Comanche St. space ends.

13. "I move to decrease the General Fund by $500,000 and to increase City Manager Dept. allocations by $500,000 for the implementation of an unarmed and non-police Mobile Crisis Response Program."

This motion, introduced by Ward 1 Brandi Studley, was previously set to reallocate $500,000 from the NPD budget to fund a mobile crisis response unit. The proposed unit would be an unarmed and non-police mobile crisis response team to respond to residents having a mental health crisis.

Due to a budget accounting error — corrected by amendment five — the council was able to pull $500,000 from the city's general fund to support the unit. Studley made an amendment to her amendment in the early hours of Wednesday to ensure the money would come from the general fund.

The amendment passed 5-4, with Clark, Ward 5 Michael Nash, Ward 2 Lauren Schueler and Ward 8 Matt Peacock voting against.

14. "I move to increase General Fund allocations to the City Manager Department by $630,321 for the implementation of an unarmed and non-police Mobile Crisis Response Program."

This budget item passed 8-1, with only Peacock voting against. The amendment approved $630,321 that was reallocated from the NPD's proposed budget last year to carry over into the next fiscal year budget and help fund the non-police mobile crisis response unit.