From a press release:

The Mayor and City Council are seeking public input into the 2009 budget. In previous years, public comment was limited, at least formally, to the night that the budget was adopted. This year, the Council has made it a priority to educate citizens on the budget and seek their priorities, thoughts and ideas.

Two open houses are being held on August 4th: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Expo Gardens and 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Peoria City/County Health Department. These open houses are designed to allow citizens to drop in, learn more about the budget, and talk with Council Members and City staff. Attendees will also be asked to complete a brief questionnaire that will gather input about budget priorities, revenue sources and cost-saving ideas.

For those citizens who cannot attend one of the open houses, an on-line questionnaire is available at www.peoriabudget.com. This questionnaire will be open from August 1 through August 10. The website will also contain information about the City’s budget, revenue sources, staffing levels and operating indicators so that visitors can be well informed about the process.

Staff will compile the answers from both the paper and on-line versions and present a summary to the City Council at their September 9 meeting.

I thought at first that I couldn’t make it to one of the open houses, assuming they were both in the evening. Upon closer inspection, I realized that one of the open houses was in the morning! So, I just wanted to point out to anyone who may have skimmed that part like I did, the open house at Expo Gardens is from 10 a.m. to noon.

Yeah, I know, how could I have missed it, right? Well, sometimes when you get a lot of press releases, you just don’t pay close enough attention. 🙂