The Tempe City Council passed a new budget for the coming fiscal year during a special meeting on June 9, though not without some outcry from residents.
The meeting to approve the final budget arrived just days after Sean Bickings, an unsheltered man living in Tempe, drowned in Tempe Town Lake as Tempe Police Department officers looked on. Dozens of Valley residents appeared earlier in the night during the regular city council meeting to decry the funding of 19 police officers in the budget in light of Bickings’ death on May 28.
The city budget has been in negotiations for months, with the first public forum held in February. In addition to proposed expenditures, the budget included funds for the five-year Capital Improvements Plan, which is required by the city charter.
