ESC presses Commission for tree-fund spending plan as $613,000 waits

The Environmental Stewardship Committee urged City staff and the Commission to move forward with a formal spending plan for the city's tree fund during its July 8 meeting.

Members said the tree fund has grown to roughly $613,000 and that unspent funds are delaying several initiatives the ESC has prioritized, including canopy assessments, planting grants and incentive programs. Amanda Askew, staff, explained the current code requires Commission approval for expenditures from the fund but that "from staff, we have no problem" preparing a resolution that would adopt the ESC's recommended spending plan and submit it to the Commission.

Committee members discussed whether the full set of proposed programs (planting, heritage-tree maintenance grants, arborist-day events, private-tree inventory and watering programs) should be combined into a single resolution or split into smaller items. Members favored having a clear, itemized request with associated costs for Commission review and suggested presenting budget buckets (incentives, planting, maintenance) to align with Commission priorities and make the request actionable.

Next steps: staff agreed to prepare a resolution and the ESC agreed to refine budget slides (including line items and cost buckets) so the Commission would have specific requests and dollar amounts when the resolution is presented. ESC members said they will seek placement of the resolution on an upcoming Commission agenda.