South Bend Budget Hearings

These are the dates and times of the Budget Hearings for the City of South Bend. Councilperson Karen L. Black mentioned the possible addition of another meeting dedicated to input from the public and to ask questions.
There are interested citizens wanting to analyze the Budget to make suggestions on how tax dollars could be better spent.
Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, the whole budget is not available online for citizen review. Councilperson Jo Broden has repeatedly requested the complete Budget be available.
The City Administration has been slow to even get the information to the Council Members for their review. When questioned, City Clerk Kareemha Fowler commented the public would not be getting the Budget for review. It would only be available to the Council Members in a Dropbox.
According to Indiana's Open Door Act, the minute the Mayor announces the Budget and presents his comments to the Council, ALL the Budget information is considered PUBLIC to ALL CITIZENS for review, even in Draft form.
Even in light of this, it still is not available. Deputy City Controller, Jennifer Hockenhull, announced on August 23rd at the Budget hearing this data will not be available until Friday, September 1st.
At present it has been mentioned there are over 700 pages, which will leave too little time for both Council and Citizens to digest the material.
If you are interested in knowing more about how your tax dollars are being spent, please attend the open meetings listed above and contact the Department of Administration and Finance at 574-235-9822. 
If you do not recieve the information you request, you may call 800-228-6013.
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