Let’s add some context.

At Monday’s reorganization meeting, I was preparing to leave while chatting with a few people in the auditorium towards 9:30pm – figuring that reporting mainly on the appointments were enough for one night. It’d have to be enough. Tired and hungry, I’d come directly from work and hadn’t even eaten dinner yet. I realized some commotion starting up concerning the normally mundane budget vote and made my way down to the stage to see what was happening.

I’d only planned on filming the State of the City address last night. That’s normal, as the overwhelming majority of what happens at your average meeting isn’t worth recording let alone sharing. But when I heard flustered nerves and talk of a “shutdown” I decided to hit the red button.

Afterwards, I opted not to post the video. For one, it doesn’t start at the begging of the dispute. Additionally, as it was impromptu, my hand wasn’t very steady at all. In fact, video aside, I only briefly mentioned the entire budget issue as a small caption beneath a photo, giving no opinion. Not having the numbers in front of me and having already missed the beginning of the tussle, I decided to let it go. Moreover, the budget was resolved to something that all parties thought was accurate and fair.

Yesterday, in posts on Doc’s, Bernice’s, and Dan Damon’s blogs, and elsewhere, a discussion of that portion of the meeting seems to be taking place. If those interested would like to know a little more about what happened that night, here’s the video. For the sake of clarity, this 13 minute clip begins with City CFO Glenn Cullen explaining that payroll goes out on Thursday of this week, implying that not resolving the budget on the spot would mean employees would not be paid on time.