Reading room
The ordinance is read before anything is drawn.
This is the sequence we follow for a Council Budget Folio. A hearing sheet and a ledger reading use the same first steps and then stop earlier.
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01
The papers
We ask for the draft ordinance, the revenue estimate, last year’s signed ordinance, and the capital list if it is a separate appendix. A page that is not in the parcel is named as missing. It is not reconstructed from memory or from a speech.
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02
The heads, aloud
Niran lists every head we intend to draw, in the ordinance’s own words. That list goes to the clerk before a chart exists. Personnel, operating, subsidy, capital, and other expenditure stay in the groups the draft already uses. We do not gather them into themes.
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03
The sentences the chamber will hear
Malee writes a gloss beside each official name and marks it as a gloss. The gloss says what the money does this year. It does not argue for the project. If a capital line has a tail into a later fiscal year, the gloss says so, and both figures are kept when the appendix gives both.
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04
The clerk’s week
Draft charts go back. The clerk has a set week to correct a name, a merge, or a figure. Corrections in that week are part of the fee. A reorganization of the whole plan after the week starts is a change of scope, and we say so before continuing.
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05
Binding, then the room
The folio is bound for the executive table, with a hearing sheet at the back. The half-day briefing walks the pages. It does not replace them with a speech. Members may write on the unbound set if the bindery is late; that happened once, and we would rather hand over a set that can be written on than hold the pages for a cover.
If this sequence matches the weeks you have before a sitting, ask for the Council Budget Folio. If you only need the list and the marks, ask for a ledger reading instead. Either way, the letter goes through the contact page.