In attendance were the some of the City staffers that were there last week at the first dialogue in Ward 3 (at the NW Neighborhood Center). Councilmember Nina Trasoff and City Manager Mike Letcher did the welcomes. The format was the same, with six break out tables of residents discussing the same questions I wrote about in my previous blog “Let the Dialogues Begin” on 9/28/09.

Neighbors/activists I recognized participating tonight: Paul Mackey, Les Pierce, Don Ijams (Neighborhood Support Network), Colette Altaffer & Ruth Beeker (Neighborhood Infill Coalition), Robin Gomez, Bill Dupont, Mary DeCamp (candidate for Ward 3 council seat), Joanie Sawyer (Pro Neighborhoods), Alice Roe, Tres English.

Again, there was a promise at the end to post these comments and suggestions on their website, www.tucsonaz.gov/dialogues. But again there was no consensus on what are the City’s top budget priorities and what areas need to be cut. I wonder how the City Manager & his staff will weed through all these suggestions to come up with “key services” that should be prioritized for the City’s budget. Otherwise, these public dialogues may become mere “discussions”, with no solutions.

There are still five more City dialogues to attend in case you’ve missed the first three.

Coming up tomorrow night is the one in Ward 4 at Desert Sky Middle School, 9850 E. Rankin Loop, at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Be there to express your opinion on how the City of Tucson should prioritize their budget, but I wonder what the final outcome after these 8 dialogues will be. Stay tuned.