Looking for some free entertainment after the NCAA basketball tournament ends in early April? The city of Henderson has a deal for you.
Three nights. Six hours. A dozen stars. And all the facts about the city budget you can consume.
April 5 to 7, City Council members will be the guests of honor for a series of budget presentations by each of the municipal government’s 12 department heads. The nightly sessions will run from 6 to 8 in the conference room at the Municipal Building. It’s BYOS (bring your own snack), but if you’re lucky, Mary Emma Evans will bake a cake.
The Finance Department distributed a complete, 8-inch-high set of departmental budget requests to each council member this week, and each department head will have 30 minutes to illuminate those dry documents.
The schedule kicks of with fire and rescue; police; recreation and aquatics; and planning and downtown development the first night. The next night is for utilities: the regional water system; the waste-water plant; engineering and public buildings; and water and sewer. Finally, finance, public works, code compliance and general administration will close out the sessions.
“I’m not suggesting that this half an hour allocation to each department will be enough. It probably won’t be,” City Manager Eric Williams said Wednesday. Instead, the budget nights will serve as teasers for the hard work awaiting the Finance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee this spring.
Because of time constraints, Williams is granting the department heads great leeway on how to present their information, even allowing them to use “a snazzy laptop thing.”
We’re sure he was referring to a PowerPoint-type slide show, but it might be tempting for a recreation director trying to fill a vacancy or a police chief hoping to boost salaries to bring in a dancing girl or two to sway the council.
Now that’s entertainment.