You may be aware that four weeks ago, Mayor Sydnor inserted a new, surprise $1 million rent subsidy grant into the FY27 budget without previously even giving Council a heads up, much less seeking Council or resident input for the idea.

The $1 million comes from interest earned on ARPA deposits and is available for the City to use however it would like. But instead of opening a conversation with Council and residents on priorities around our town and talking through how to best direct the monies, the Mayor developed his own plans for the funds and never even mentioned it existed until Councilmembers finally got to page 192 of the 308-page budget on their own, noticed it was there, and started asking questions.

Three days later, the draft program documents we received made it clear the program was still being defined and there were plenty of unanswered questions – Not to mention the basic starting point of how this use had somehow trumped all other priorities without even a conversation.

As a result, Councilmembers reached consensus at their May 11 Budget Work Session to advance a budget amendment to remove the grant line so that the $1 million could be properly revisited after the 24-day budget sprint. This would allow appropriate air to the process of seeking resident input, having a conversation among Council, and even just talking through to ensure ideas had been given their proper consideration (a basic premise of how government is supposed to function).

The Council’s amendment passed at this Wednesday’s budget vote, as did the full budget as amended.

But the Mayor vetoed the amendment Thursday, expressing his desire to move ahead with his plans regardless.

You can watch my cautionary comments expressed at the meeting here, in which I was even interrupted in the middle of my statement in an attempt to impede Councilmember voices from being heard (which also happened to two other Councilmembers during the proceedings).

In my opinion, this is not an acceptable way to practice governance and translates into casting a deaf ear on the residents and their representatives.

Per our Charter, Council will have an opportunity to override the Mayor’s veto – That vote has just been scheduled for this coming Monday, June 1 at 6 p.m. at Council Chambers. Four Councilmember votes will be needed to achieve override, and based on Wednesday night’s vote, one more is needed.

Please reach out to Council President Brencis Smith (At-Large) and Councilmember Jeffrey Mills (Ward 2) to ask them to support a veto override so that the people and their representatives can give proper attention to this significant expenditure (effectively the 4th biggest line in our Operating Budget). Their emails are:

You may also consider emailing Mayor Sydnor to ask that he cancel his veto (which he has the ability to do) - [email protected]

Please be sure to email me too ([email protected]) if you haven’t already so I’ll know – I’m keeping a count of resident feedback and below is a chart thus far which I’ll continue to update.

Lastly, I also want to mention Council also amended the budget to restore $15k back to our Laurel Independent contract as a fair price for the 4-page insert we use to communicate critical information to residents each month. That line was also vetoed and I believe should be restored based on community feedback received as well.

Thank you as always for being Laurel and please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions!