The April 11, 2016 City Council meeting included on its agenda a resolution:

(COUNCIL PRESIDENT CLARKE II) The Court of Common Council highly encourages the Mayor to negotiate with all collective bargaining units and offers the following additional suggestions for achieving savings and generating more revenue, which suggestions are not intended to be an exhaustive list.

The agenda package, which is the expanded version that few residents see, read as follows:

A replacement for that item was then circulated on April 12, 2016:

If there is to be discussion about what City Council hopes to do, their constituents should see the exact language being used.

The last bullet point on the replacement — “Reduce non-essential Capital Improvement Projects” — is interesting to find, as that agenda also included a proposed resolution supporting “continuing improvements at Keney and Goodwin Golf Course.” This may be time to explain what “non-essential” means.