COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus City Council is increasing the amount of money spent on area commissions, the voices of the city’s neighborhoods inside City Hall.
An ordinance that would increases funding from the current level of $1,000 to $2,500 for all 17 area commissions will be showing up on a future council agenda, Small and Minority Business Development Committee chair A. Troy Miller told the Franklinton Area Commission earlier this week.
“The commission meetings have maintained a line of communication not just between commissioners and city leaders, but between neighborhoods. While there is much more work that must done, this announcement of an increase in commission funding will help us at the street level build a stronger Columbus,” Becky Obester, chair of the 5th by Northwest Area Commission, said.
Area commissioners first suggested an increase in funding to council members in a report completed in 2007, Council spokesman John Ivanic said.
The money can be used for things like including mailings and programming
In the 2013 budget, $100,000 was set aside to support website hosting and page design, record retention and storage, and other needs, Ivanic said.