Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 4, dated Oct. 5, 2018.

: Troy-based designer/illustrator Zach Higgins created the handsome banner above this text. He managed to draw from what little I contributed to the effort—namely, a Pinterest board of Troy images I thought were cool—to produce something contemporary and distinct. Thanks, Zach! It's unfortunate that the banner will likely outshine the rest of the newsletter for the rest of its existence, but perhaps it will at least spur me to produce slightly better content.It's budget season, folks. Per the city code , the mayor must file his proposed budget for next year with the city clerk by Oct. 10. As I write this, according to a Times Union reporter's tweet , the mayor is giving a presentation on his proposal. I didn't receive an invite for some reason, but rest assured there will be lots of time to scrutinize and argue about the proposal's details, and I intend to cover the process closely.Next Thursday, the city comptroller will give a presentation on the new budget to the city council finance committee, which will then "go through each of the departments that fall under the finance committee, which are quite a few," council president Carmella Mantello said last night.All the other standing committees will review the departments under their purview at future meetings, too. Members of the public will be able to ask department heads budget-related questions, Mantello said.While the thought of attending a meeting solely on the topic of municipal finance might sound awful, I'd submit that these budget-related meetings offer a rare and potentially thorough look into the operations of our city government. This year, for instance, there has been only *one* meeting of the public safety committee , which oversees the police department. I mention that not necessarily as a critique of anyone but just to underscore how, over the next few weeks, you might be able to get a pretty good (and free) crash course on All Things City Government. (Also probably worth noting: it's all four members of the Democratic majority's first budget season, so they might have some questions, too.)There are now almost 400 TL subscribers. See you at city hall?