# Budget Engagement Roundtable 6.30.25

- Date: July 1, 2025
- Type: Video
- Length: 38:06
- Topic: Budget
- Video: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-ipakYtFBk)
- Transcript: Machine transcription, 5,786 words ([text](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/files/transcripts/youtube/h-ipakYtFBk.txt))
- Mayor: [Brandon Johnson](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor)

## Legislation

- [R2026-0023372: Call on Mayor Brandon Johnson and his administration to implement Year 2026 budget package](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/matter/R2026-0023372-call-mayor-brandon-johnson-his-administration)

## Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the Malcolm X College Budget Engagement Roundtable.

## Transcript

[0:03](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=3) Alright folks, we're going to get started in about one to two more minutes, so please come on in, sit down, there are seats all around, come and join us. Alright, thank you. Alright everyone, we're going to get started tonight. Thank you, welcome, welcome, welcome.

[2:14](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=134) Welcome. We're going to turn down the slow jazz so we can talk about budget engagement. Wonderful. Welcome, everyone. Good evening, everyone. My name is Sarah Mathers. I am the chief of community engagement for the mayor's office, and I'm pleased to welcome you to our 2026 budget engagement roundtables. Let's have a round of applause for that. Yeah. I love the energy. Thank you tonight for coming tonight.

[2:52](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=172) I know that there's a lot of other things that you could be doing on a Monday evening, a beautiful Monday evening in the summertime. But your commitment to your neighborhood and our city is impressive. And you chose to spend your time with us this evening talking about your priorities and how you want to see your hard earned money spent to make this the greatest city in the world. So let's give another round of applause for that, for you guys coming out this evening. Thank you. I also want to thank our stakeholders who helped design this today. I saw a couple of you in the room. Raise your hands. Stand up. All right, I see you in the back. There we go. Thank you for being with us. There's TJ up front and also our partner, Great Cities Institute and Taya Crum. I'm not sure where she is, but hopefully she's waving her hand over there.

[3:44](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=224) Thank you to her as well. You'll see her and her staff around the room today helping to make everything great. So here's how tonight's going to go. We're going to have a short presentation about our budget, and it's not an easy topic to turn into a quick PowerPoint, but our budget director will walk us through some of the main points of our corporate budget and how it's made. She'll also discuss some of the things that we heard from you last year that we prioritized into the budget that the mayor and the departments built into the budget.

[4:19](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=259) So the budget for 2025 included some key elements from our discussions at these roundtables. We want you to know that we hear you and what you say matters. And so before we get to talking about how the budget roundtables are going to go and before we hear from the mayor on this, I'm going to ask Director Guzman to come up here and drop some knowledge on you today. And after she's done with the lesson, we will have the mayor speak,

[4:50](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=290) and then we'll talk about how the roundtables are going to go. So let's welcome Budget Director Annette Guzman to the stage. Thank you very much. Good evening. Okay, I'm going to do that one more time. I understand that budgets are not the most compelling, exciting, amazing things that people want to talk about, but I want to make sure that we have some energy in this room as we talk about the things that the city provides to our neighbors,

[5:22](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=322) to our communities, and also how we get those ideas from you. So, once again, good evening. Thank you. The energy you give, I will give right back to you. How about that? Yes. So as Sarah said, we always want to make sure that when we have these discussions that we grounded in reality and facts about how the city's budget works. You know, I have the distinct privilege of being able to, you know, work with our departments every single day, work with community organizations that are out on the front lines providing services and working with our departments to provide those services.

[6:07](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=367) And then I have the distinct privilege of being able to work with the mayor's office on how we take the collective will of our residents, of our business owners, of our elected officials, and distill that into one annual budget every single year that sets the tone not only for that year, but for years to come. That's an awesome responsibility, but it's also a responsibility that I do not take lightly. And so as we think about what, you know, this exercise that we engage in every single year, we want to make sure that you have the knowledge to understand why we do it, how we do it, and what the end result of this exercise is.

[6:51](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=411) Because as we always say, knowledge is power. There you go. Again, the energy you give me, I will give right back to you. So every single year we engage in this process because we're required to by law, not only by state law, which says that every single year we've got to produce a balanced budget. The mayor has to present a budget to the legislature by a certain time of year, and the legislature has to decide how to prioritize those resources and pass a budget that's balanced

[7:23](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=443) in order to fund the operations of city government in the coming year. And so we do that. We not only present a budget that reflects the vision of this mayor, but reflects the collective will of the residents of the city of Chicago. And how do we know that? And you'll find out a little bit later. But we talk to you. We listen to you. We polled you. And we try to get as much information as possible to understand how should we be shifting our budget to support the work of the city. But we have to do that within parameters. And so when he first came into office, this mayor passed an executive order that put parameters on himself where he said, you know what, I need to understand what is ahead of me so that I can produce a budget that's fiscally sound and that at the end of the day will be balanced.

[8:13](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=493) And so by September 30th of every year, we have to present a forecast, which presents a snapshot of how we're going to end the year, but also where do our revenues and where do we think our expenditures are going to go for the next three years? Because, as you know, when you're thinking about your own budgets, your own households, you're not only thinking about the day in front of you, but you're thinking about months ahead of you and how you're going to be able to support the costs of your household budgets. And so the mayor does that, too. So he presents a forecast by September every year. We end up usually beating our deadline and submitting it by August.

[8:54](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=534) And then on top of that, we have to present a budget recommendation, and he put himself at an earlier timeline. The state statute says we have to do it by mid-November. In his executive order, he gives himself by no later than October. We usually present by mid-October. And then finally, last year, City Council passed an ordinance that said, hey, we want to understand before we even get to the end of the budget year, before the mayor presents his budget, tell us how we're doing financially mid-year.

[9:24](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=564) And so beginning this year, we will be presenting an update on our financial health by midpoint of the year so you can understand how we'll be holding ourselves to account. And if our revenues are not coming in as strong as we thought they are, how are we ensuring that we're mitigating our costs and lowering our costs to ensure that we don't end up in a deficit? And so you'll see that report come out mid-July, and you'll also see operational hearings with the Budget Committee happening in September, well ahead of budget.

[9:56](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=596) So you've probably seen this graphic before. but it's super important. Why is it super important? Because what it shows is who do we work for? We work for you. At the very top of our city government are our residents. Our residents are who we are showing up every day for, who we're providing services every day for, so it behooves us to come here and listen to you, not only today, but to show up every day and listen to you. Underneath our residents, we have our elected officials. Mayor is over the executive branch, which has authority over the executive functions of city government,

[10:32](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=632) so the services, the operations that are providing for our communities. In addition to the mayor, we have two other separately elected offices, our city clerk, who is responsible for maintaining the records of our legislative body, city council, as well as other functions related to provision of certain city stickers, such as vehicle stickers, wheel tax, as well as the new mobile city city hall, which provides the city key.

[11:04](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=664) And then we have the city treasurer, who is responsible, who is the top investment chief for the city of Chicago. She's responsible for investing the dollars that you send us, whether it's through taxes or other money that we might receive, and invest it in a way that brings a return to the city of Chicago for the benefit of its residents. And then finally, we have our legislative branch, City Council, made up of the 50 alders and alderwomen who make up the 50 wards. What does our budget fund?

[11:35](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=695) I am often surprised, not surprised, mostly surprised when I have conversations and people don't understand the breadth of services that the city provides. Now, that tells us we have to do a better job of telling you what it is that we do every day, why we are working and how we're working on your behalf. But if you were to distill it down into categories, we've got our infrastructure services, which are as varied as making sure our roads are paved, making sure our trees are trimmed, to making sure that the water flows from our water filtration station to your homes, and that is drinkable water.

[12:11](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=731) We've got our public safety, which most people know about because it's the largest part of our budget. Police officers, fire, emergency management. We've got our city development. So we have a whole infrastructure that is responsible for making sure that we develop our city, whether it be for economic development within our communities, housing within our communities, or the cultural things that we do within our communities. Think about film and how we develop and promote films here at our city.

[12:41](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=761) We obviously have our regulatory branch, which is responsible for making sure that we and those that do business in the city of Chicago, those that build in the city of Chicago, do so in accordance with codes and statutes that are passed at the state level as well as the city level and the federal level. We've got community services. This is vital for those who receive services, whether it's our senior citizens, our youth, are those who might need vaccinations through our public health department, as well as our libraries, which are a crucial part of the fabric of our communities.

[13:17](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=797) And then finally, all of that at the backbone, we have our administration and finance departments that support all of that work that I just told you about. And so it's a complex but important ecosystem that the budget of the city of Chicago funds. So I always like to make it clear what our budget does not fund, because we'll often hear, well, my park isn't doing something, or the CTA is slow. What can you do about that? While a lot of those organizations have boards that are appointed by the mayor, their budgets are separate and apart from the city's budget.

[13:55](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=835) They have their own, a lot of times, board members. They also – which are appointed largely by the mayor. CPS is the distinct distinction here where by 2027 they'll have their own elected board. It's hybrid right now. But those are separate and apart budgets that are passed by separate and apart agencies. And while we do provide provision to a lot of those agencies, we enter to a lot of intergovernmental agreements where we provide services to them or we might provide funding to them,

[14:30](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=870) there's often an exchange. They might be providing services to us as well. So what we won't be talking about tonight are the budgets of any of these agencies. We'll be talking about the City of Chicago's operational budget. All right, turning to the numbers and sense of it all. You know, you hear a lot, the city has a structural budget imbalance. Why is that? So let's just start with how much is our budget? 2025, the City Council passed a $17.1 billion budget, which is now a $17.1 billion budget, which is now a $17.1 billion budget. It's made up of a lot of different revenue sources and which supports a lot of those operations that I just talked about.

[15:07](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=907) What you can see here is that the city has seen a steady increase of our budget since 2019, which is pre-pandemic. But that really came to a climax in 2022, and that was largely due to the very large infusions of funding that we received from the federal government in the wake of and in the aftermath of COVID-19, as we were really working to help our communities and our businesses recover from the pandemic.

[15:38](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=938) And as we've passed 2022, we've seen a steady decrease in those funds where our budget is starting to normalize. The other big thing that you'll see here is the one thing that you probably hear talked about a lot as it relates to the city and their obligations, is the increase in our pension funds. And so under state statute, the city and all municipalities are required to bring their funded ratios of their pensions up to a certain percentage by a date certain. And because of that, the city has steadily increased its contributions year over year

[16:12](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=972) to the point that in 2025 our pension obligations were $3 billion. So all of that leads to this budget imbalance that I mentioned before. And, you know, you have budget imbalances when one side of your ledger is growing at a faster pace than the other. It would be great if that was on the revenue side, but unfortunately it's on our expenditure side. Our expenditures are projected to grow at a pace of 8% through 2026, while our revenues are only on pace to grow by 5%.

[16:45](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1005) And so that presents an opportunity as well as a challenge for the city of Chicago to think about how do we provide services in the wake of our revenues not growing as we would hope that they would grow. So when you look at our revenue, it's important to understand what makes it up. So we have our local taxes, which is what we control through our home rule authority. We have our local non-tax revenue, which is usually made up of things like fees and fines for noncompliance with city ordinances.

[17:18](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1038) But the largest area outside of those that we control is intergovernmental revenue. And over the course of the last several years, that has started to shrink and shrink, and that's the revenue that the state collects on behalf of the city of Chicago. There are things like our personal property replacement tax and state income tax. So those are areas where we would like to see more growth in the years to come. Expenditures. This gives you a breakdown both by department function as well as expenditure category. As you can see here, our largest expense is public safety.

[17:49](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1069) And that's not only in the personnel costs that we incur, but also things like legacy liabilities related to settlements and judgments. The second biggest area in our budget is general financing requirements, which are a complement to personnel costs because they're their benefits, they're their pensions, and so forth. When you look at the expenditure category, that becomes a lot more clear that our largest cost is our personnel, right, through our personnel services, followed shortly and closely by our specific items and contingencies,

[18:24](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1104) which is, again, where we budget our benefits as well as our pension. Okay, so Sarah mentioned before that these sessions are critically important to how we develop our budget. You know, in last year's budget engagement report that was released by UIC, Great Cities, our partner, you know, one of the things that this mayor has really, really made a priority is co-governance, thinking and listening with our communities, developing and implementing with our communities.

[19:00](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1140) And so what you saw in the 2025 budget were the priorities that were highlighted through our budget engagement series, through the online surveys that people took, through the many meetings that we had with advisory committees, with task force, and so forth. And so I'll just run through these relatively quickly, because I know you guys want to get to the conversations, and I know you want to hear from our mayor. But one of the big areas was expanding services to persons experiencing homelessness. So in the wake of this year and transitioning from the work that we did to shelter migrants that came to the city of Chicago,

[19:40](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1180) we were able to take infrastructure and expand our homeless shelter network, which is often the first line of defense when people are experiencing homelessness. And so for a very long time in the city of Chicago, we only had 3,000 beds to support those that were homeless in our community. We expanded that by 3,800 beds. in our 2025 budget with an investment of an additional $40 million on top of that shelter network. As a complement to expanding our shelter network, we also were able to maintain our rapid rehousing program,

[20:14](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1214) which is a further step in supporting those who are experiencing homelessness by expanding services through wraparound, as well as providing up to 24 months of rental assistance and wraparound services and case management with an investment of $29 million. This next one was a big, big, big, big priority for our youth in our youth engagement sessions, which is expanding broadband access to underserved communities. We know that not all parts of our city are connected.

[20:45](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1245) Not all parts of our city have access to Internet. And when it comes to being able to search for a job or be able to connect because you have online courses at your college or your school, This is a huge access issue. And so with an investment of twenty three million dollars in the twenty five budget, we'll be able to expand broadband connectivity to areas of the city that are underserved. You've heard the mayor talk about this year, the reduction of violence that we've seen throughout our city.

[21:17](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1277) And it's not small reductions. These are reductions that we haven't seen in decades. A lot of that has to do with the work that our community organizations are doing through the People's Plan for Community Safety and an investment in the 25 budget of over $100 million in community violence prevention investments. And these span the gamut, not only helping youth, but helping gender-based violence survivors, reentry programs, and the like.

[21:52](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1312) Another big priority that came out in these discussions was the need to have alternative responses for mental health. And so what that resulted in was an investment of just under $2 million to expand the dispatch support needed to get our care networks out into communities across the city of Chicago. Also in CDPH, another big priority, not only of those here that came to our community,

[22:24](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1344) but I know it's a big priority for the First Lady of the City of Chicago, is ensuring that we have support for maternal health. We know that outcomes in maternal health often depend upon what zip codes you live in, and we want to make sure that we are turning the corner on that. And so with an investment of $13 million to support our program through CDPH of Family Connects, where those who need postpartum care are able to get that through participating hospitals within our program. And then just two more, our youth and economy part of our budget.

[22:58](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1378) So you've heard the mayor talk about making sure that we're engaging our youth, not only in engagement after-school activities, but that we're putting them to productive use. And what does everybody want? Is it what I wanted when I was 13, 14, 15, 16 years old? I wanted to be able to have and join the economy. And so through an investment of $50 million, we were able to increase by 1,000 slots the number of paid jobs, not just jobs, paid jobs to youth in the city of Chicago so that 29,000 youth will be able to have paid jobs this summer.

[23:37](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1417) And then finally, one of the other priorities that we heard was increasing cultural grants and funding organizations and individual artists. We know that this was an industry that was incredibly impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic and is still emerging from the impacts of the COVID-19 on the industry. And so through additional funding of a million dollars, we were able to increase to just under $10 million

[24:12](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1452) the amount of funding that we were able to give to individual artists as well as arts organizations as they continue to foster creative initiatives throughout the city of Chicago. So where are we in the budget calendar? We are the end of June, and that is where we are coming to you. This is before departments ever put pen to paper to start to make their budget requests. And this was something that, through Sarah's leadership, we actually moved forward this year.

[24:42](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1482) This is usually done in July. We moved it forward to June. And that was to give departments an opportunity to sit and listen and hear directly from you about the priorities and the things that you care about and that matter the most in your communities. But once we hear from you, and we've been doing this, as Sarah said, since... This February of this year, talking to our advisory groups, the stakeholder group that designed these forums, we enter into a process of talking to our departments, understanding, based on our resources, what is it that we can prioritize based on what we heard from you.

[25:15](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1515) That leads to the mayor developing his budget, which will be released in mid-October of this year, and then submitted to City Council for consideration, where they will then determine, based on their community input, their feedback from residents, what the priorities are to pass a budget before the end of the year. By ordinance and by state law, we have to pass a budget before December 31st of every single year. And once it's passed, it goes into effect in January. So I'll just leave you with this.

[25:47](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1547) The city's budget is complex. I'll be the first one to tell you that. but we do everything we can to distill it for you, make it less complex. We have videos on our website that help to try to explain the budget to you. We have reports that talk about revenue, that talk about expenditures, that try to forecast where the budget is going for years to come. And we invite you to spend a little time on our website because a budget tells you a lot about what a city prioritizes

[26:18](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1578) and it tells you a lot about what it plans to do in the future. And so we ask you and we encourage you to review us, hold us accountable, and join us as we engage and embark on this journey together. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Director Guzman, for that wonderful lesson. But we have another teacher with us here tonight, right?

[26:48](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1608) So I'm going to hand it over to him, but I do want to say very briefly thank you to Malcolm X College for hosting us this evening, And I see that the alder has joined us, too, Alderman Burnett. So thank you for that. And again, thank you to everyone here. So we have the mayor here who is going to talk about why this is so important to him. He is the architect of this larger and more robust engagement series that we've done. So let's welcome Mayor Brandon Johnson to the stage. Thank you very much.

[27:23](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1643) Thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. Grateful for you all. Really am grateful for you all. Thank you for providing your expertise on what will be, I believe, another year of a transformative budget. The attention that you all are giving to the budget process speaks volumes to your commitment to building alongside of me the safest, most affordable big city in America. I'm grateful that I do have a strong partner, our vice mayor.

[27:56](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1676) Let's do a better job at welcoming him. Vice Mayor Walter Burnett, thank you. So thank you to our budget director, Annette Guzman. Sarah Mather has done an incredible job with our community engagement. She leads that department, the entire mayor's office of community engagement. We have a number of commissioners, first deputies and staff that are here today. And of course, this fine institution on the west side of Chicago, Malcolm X College. I do want to thank all of you for taking time out to provide, again, your expertise.

[28:30](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1710) Our effort today is really about having important conversations and discussions about how we move our city forward. Your feedback and ideas, even your criticism, will be vital in building the city's budget. All of you are experts because of your own respective experiences, child care providers, teachers, individuals who rely upon our public accommodations, those who rely upon public health, those who rely upon our recreational spaces.

[29:05](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1745) You all know that we are facing many challenges in our respective communities. But what your respective communities are calling for is how we have to show up in government. because it's your knowledge and input that will help us best allocate the funding that we put forward to invest in the things that truly matter, like affordable housing, community safety, mental health, youth employment, environmental justice, and neighborhood development as a whole.

[29:36](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1776) Because of you all's feedback, we had the largest investment in economic development and housing in the history of Chicago with our $1.25 billion Build Better Together bond. We have built almost 4,000 affordable homes, 1,800 that are under construction. We'll have another 4,600 affordable homes built within the next 13. 14 months, our missing middle program, where we're creating owner-occupied multi-units where generational wealth is being established while also revitalizing the West and South

[30:11](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1811) sides of Chicago, reopening our mental health clinics, expanding our mental health care so that when people call for mental health intervention, a police officer doesn't show up or they don't have to show up, but a paid mental health provider shows up. That's because of the work that you all have done in this room. So you at least got to know that a brother is listening to you all. 29,000 young people will have summer jobs this year,

[30:44](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1844) but we have to make sure in next year's budget that that number increases because for every child that finds their purpose, that's one more child that is helping us build a safe and affordable city. But here's the thing. We need to continue to build and expand these partnerships. you all as community members you're stakeholders and you represent a wide range of neighborhoods across this city you are the bridge and the gap between the government and the people and as we work to bring government

[31:16](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1876) closer to the people you all play a critical role in doing just that I want you to continue to help us expand and innovate in how we bring people together but also to expand and innovate our ideas to make sure that we have a budget and a budget process that ensures that all of our residents are heard and that their needs are met. And that is why these roundtables are so important tonight. You hanging out just a little bit later at these various tables where city departments

[31:47](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1907) get to hear directly from you, I want you to know as your mayor, it means so much to me that you will take the time to ensure that our department leaders know exactly what our communities need. So I'm truly honored, really, that you all are here to help guide this budget process. But I'm also honored that you're here to make sure that we do the right thing for the people of Chicago. So I look forward to all of your thoughts and your ideas. So tonight you all don't have to text me. You can just talk to people in my administration and know that we're going to continue to build the most safest, most affordable big city in America,

[32:24](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1944) which is the greatest freaking city in the world, the city of Chicago. So God bless you all. All right, wonderful. We have heard a wonderful lesson from Director Guzman. I learn something every single time that I hear it. It's really dense, but we've got printouts there for you. We know the commitment that the mayor has made. And now it's time for you, the most important people in our budget, the top of our organizational chart, to talk about your priorities here.

[33:03](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=1983) We're going to have some guiding frameworks that talk about how we've designed this and what we go into this with. And we want to make sure this is participatory, that there's equity-centered, that there's education, like the wonderful lesson that we just got from Director Guzman, and that there's transparency and accountability. So these are the frameworks that we've used to create this system. And tonight we're going to have five topic areas that we're focusing in on. affordable housing and homelessness, community safety, environmental justice and infrastructure,

[33:39](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2019) community and neighborhood development and arts and culture, and then public and mental health. And you were given a packet when you first walked in with a bunch of programs and initiatives and projects that our departments would like to get a little more engagement on. Our community stakeholders helped us to narrow down this list, and we'd love for you to take a look at that packet and give us some feedback on how these impact your community. Now, this isn't the only thing that we're going to talk about tonight.

[34:09](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2049) You are welcome to discuss anything and everything that comes to mind. What are you passionate about? What programs do you use that you love and you want to make sure stick around? Or what isn't working for you? Please let us know tonight. We also have programs that are going to be listed around the room when we go into the next room. We want you to take a look at those and ask away. We are here tonight to listen to you, to accept your feedback, and to hear what you have to say about things.

[34:41](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2081) So please, do that with gusto. Do it with as much passion as you can. But with everything that we do, an underlying focus will be our youth. so we do this in mind for the next generation and so we hope that you keep them in mind today when you talk about those programs and projects and initiatives. This roundtable is for you, but we're going to have an exclusively youth-focused roundtable on July 9th, so let's keep them at top of

[35:11](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2111) mind, but they're going to have an opportunity to talk about their priorities also. Soon we're going to break into these topic areas. When we go over to the main room, we'll have a little bit of a transition time to get over there and start these discussions. And as I say that we, the city, consider this a listening session for our staff, all right? So I want you to take up a lot of space. I want you to say exactly what you want to see your money spent on. Of course, I want you to do it with your inside voices and with respect. But let's go in there

[35:46](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2146) and let's talk about what's important to us, what's important to our communities. We're going to have three rounds of about 30 minutes each I'm going to go in there and you'll see big clocks and I'm going to tell you when it's about time to switch to the next round you can stay in one topic all three rounds or you can jump around a little bit now if you want to do all five you're going to have to join us again tomorrow night at Kennedy King and I do see some people that joined us at Truman, which we had our first roundtable on Saturday. But please feel free to stick around

[36:22](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2182) to one topic or to jump around. It's a choose-your-own-adventure engagement. But please, please, please, please, please, please take our survey. That's really, really important. That's how we create this really big engagement packet that talks about what your priorities are, and it helps us measure what people are thinking. So you were handed a survey when you came in. You can also take it online. There are QR codes that are around, but please, either in person or online,

[36:55](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2215) we prefer the paper copy. And don't forget to give it back to us, please. We're going to ask you for it at the end. We also have comment cards that are going to be at each table. Please write it down. Write down your thoughts. They will all end up in this really big, beautiful report that we have, that we do. We'll also have a place where you can record a video message. So we got surveys. We got comment cards. We got videos. We have roundtables.

[37:26](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk?t=2246) We have opportunities for you to talk about what you want. So let's go and do it. Everybody get up and go into those rooms, and let's start these conversations, all right? Thank you very much.

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Source: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/h-ipakYtFBk · Chicago Politics, an independent tracker of the Chicago City Council. Guide for agents: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/llms.txt