Chair says mayor and city manager committed to including tree mitigation spending plan in budget

The Tree Subcommittee chair told members that the presentation to the City Commission went "pretty well," and that city leaders "committed" to include the committee's mitigation spending plan in the budget process. "They committed they being the mayor and the city manager committed to, including the tree, mitigation fund action plan and spending plan in the budget process and would approve it as part of that," the chair said during opening remarks.

The chair urged commissioners to accept the committee's work "as is" and avoid detailed line-by-line review that could delay expenditures. The subcommittee discussed next steps for advocacy and recommended that when the resolution appears on the commission agenda members proactively offer clarifications about what the fund can and cannot finance. Members said the spending plan is intended to be used to plant and establish trees and that leaving the mitigation fund unspent would defeat its purpose.