Dear community members,

I hope you’ve been enjoying your summers and Happy July Fourth weekend!

After months of budget request meetings and preparing the proposed budget for fiscal years 2016-2018, deliberations concluded last week and the proposed budget moves forward for the first vote at the Full Board on July 19 and second and final vote on July 26. You can read more about the City and District 7 budget priorities below.

As some of you may have personally experienced, one of the most common constituent complaints I receive is from property owners being required to care for street trees. While I believe most of us appreciate trees in our urban environment, homeowners often end up bearing heavy costs to maintain them, or worse, getting fined for inadvertantly trimming or removing a tree improperly. Caring for our street trees should be a basic City service and I introduced legislation last week for an interim solution to this issue.

Also in light of the pedestrian that was tragically killed by a paratransit van, my legislation requiring telematics installation in City vehicles will be a tool used to prevent future collisions and was passed at the Board last week.

Now that summer’s here, I hope you check out all the fun, free events for all ages around the city.

My staff and I look forward to continue hearing from many of you regarding your concerns, ideas and questions.

Regards,

Norman