Minneapolis Budget Committee Meeting – October 16, 2025: Parks and Legislative Department Budgets
Minneapolis Budget Committee Meeting – October 16, 2025
The Minneapolis City Budget Committee, chaired by Aisha Chugtai, convened on Thursday, October 16, 2025, at 8:04 AM local time. The meeting included presentations on the mayor's recommended 2026 budgets for the Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) and the Legislative Department (City Council and City Clerk). Seven members were present, with a quorum confirmed. The meeting adjourned after the legislative department presentation, with the climate legacy initiative presentation postponed.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the meeting.
Parks and Recreation Board 2026 Budget Presentation
Presentation: Park Board President Kathy Abene, Superintendent Al Bangora, and Finance Director Julie Weissman presented the MPRB 2026 budget. Key points:
- The budget addresses a projected $6 million deficit through new revenue generation, holding vacant positions, eliminating some positions, and increasing fees for childcare, golf, and parking.
- Major projects: River Hub at Greco Park (net-zero carbon), Upper Harbor Park (20-acre regional park), and North Commons Park (largest neighborhood park investment).
- Budget restores 2025 ice rink closures at Powderhorn and Weber Parks, and adds a mobile beer garden concept and sponsorship program.
- The property tax levy increase is 6.1%, with MPRB receiving 17.4% of the city's total tax levy. Local government aid has not increased since 2024.
- Youth program specialist positions remain vacant until 2027 when full property tax allocation is reached.
Councilmember Questions and Positions:
- Councilmember Chavez asked about the Uptown Mall plan ($300,000 savings), staff treatment after the 2024 strike, youth positions, parking fee increases, and support for microentrepreneurs. MPRB staff responded that the Uptown Mall plan is part of the capital budget, youth positions are held vacant due to funding gaps, and parking fee increases are in the enterprise fund.
- Councilmember Cashman inquired about the Lake of the Isles ice rink (fully funded), tree planting budget (to be provided), carbon offset program revenue ($96,000 transferred over two years), and Fourth of July fireworks funding ($20,000–$25,000). Staff noted that fireworks costs are about $2,000 per minute.
- Councilmember Rainville praised MPRB's public safety efforts at The Commons and asked about visitor data analytics (Placer AI).
- Councilmember Vita thanked MPRB for the North Commons Park commitment.
Legislative Department 2026 Budget Presentation
Presentation: Destiny Zhang, Director of Administration, Office of City Clerk, presented the 2026 budget for the City Council and Office of City Clerk. Key points:
- The City Council budget decreases by $5,804 (0.01%) with no FTE changes (41 FTEs). The council completed 2,529 official acts in 2025.
- The Office of City Clerk budget increases by $4.6 million (35%) due to one-time election funding and the transfer of 10 FTEs from the Office of City Auditor to establish a legislative research and oversight division.
- The City Auditor's office will present separately later.
Key Outcomes
- The Parks Board budget presentation was received and filed; no vote was taken by the committee.
- The Legislative Department budget presentation was ongoing at the time of the transcript's end; no decisions were made.
- Follow-up questions from councilmembers were noted for future responses.
Note: The meeting's third agenda item (Climate Legacy Initiative) was not covered in the available transcript.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. My name is Aisha Chugtai, and I'm the chair of the budget committee. I'm going to call to order our adjourned meeting for Thursday, October 16th, 2025. Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community. Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the role so we can verify the presence of a quorum. Councilman Payne is absent. Wandsley is absent. Rainbow. Present. Present. Ellison is absent. Osman is absent. Cashman present. Jenkins is absent. Chavez. Present. Chowdry is absent. Palmasano. Present. Vice Chair Koski. Present. Chair Shaktei. Present. There are seven members present. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum. I will also remind my colleagues that we will be using speaker management today, so please make sure to sign in. Today we have three pre presentations related to the mayor's recommended 2026 budget from the parks and recreation board, the legislative department, and the city's climate legacy initiative. First, I'll invite Parks Board President Kathy Abene, Superintendent Al Bangora, and Finance Director Julie Weissman to begin the Parks and Rec Board presentation. Welcome. Thank you very much, Chair Chungtai and members of the committee. This budget was just presented to the park commissioners last night, and so we're still going through it, but in general, I would say it's a budget to be proud of, and I hope you find that to be the case as well. We worked really hard this year with the mayor's office and then with the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and we have a member here of the the BET and another that's not present, but really uh appreciated their um interest in the park system this year and their willingness to um you know hear the needs of the park system and support the parks. So with that, I'll just go ahead and turn this over to Superintendent Al Bangora. Thank you. Welcome, sir. Thank you. Chair Taktai and members, uh it's a privilege of being here today. Just give me a moment, I'll walk through some things. I'm gonna turn it over to Director Weissman to then walk through uh the budget for 2026. So for more than 140 years, our park system has been shaped by vision, advocacy, and shared commitment to community. Today we have the privilege and also the responsibility for carrying that legacy forward. As stewards of our parks, uh the choices we make now, uh, where we invest, what we protect, and how we prioritize will define the future of our parks, our environment, and our city. This year we celebrate several major milestones. The River Hub at Greco Park opened, advancing our climate goals through clean energy generation and conservation while engaging through our Spark Studios and enhancing riverfront and downtown programming. Construction is nearing completion on the Upper Harbor Park, a 20-acre regional park that transforms the former industrial riverfront into a welcoming space for people and wildlife. We also broke ground on the largest ever investment in our Minneapolis neighborhood parks, North Commons Park. It's a bold, forward-looking project grounded in the community's rich history.
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