Mayor Charlie Hales announced this afternoon that his office has cobbled together money from a mix of public and private sources to preserve a list of city programs citizens fought to keep from the budget chopping block.



Those last-minute salvages from $21.5 million in budget cuts include keeping the Police Bureau's Mounted Patrol Unit, Buckman Pool and two programs that aid victims of sex trafficking. Citizens have loudly protested all three cuts in the past month.



"Public hearings matter," Hales told reporters at a roundtable in City Hall. "When people show up and have an opinion, this City Council listens."



The most complicated reprieve is the mounted patrol, which will be reduced from six horseback officers to four.

