Multiple nonprofit leaders and arts organizers spoke during the public-comment period of the city’s final 2026 budget hearing, asking council to avoid cutting the Community Recovery Fund (CRF) to pay for recurring personnel costs.

Scott Slingerland of CAT described CRF-funded bicycle education that reached more than 1,600 youth in 2024 and a holiday bike program that has distributed more than 1,000 bikes; he said CAT’s downtown operations and community programs depend on continued CRF support. Becca Eichelberger of Touchstone Theater said Festival Unbound drew more than 5,000 participants across 26 events in 2023–24 and that the festival has been a platform to advance civic conversations on topics such as affordable housing.

Speakers from the Ice House Performing Arts Collaborative and Monocacy Farm Project made similar appeals, warning that repairing program budgets with one-time funds risks harming community services that are already financially fragile. Shelter operators said reductions would directly affect unhoused residents: one shelter leader reported a 128% increase in shelter population over several years and an average of 65 people per night during shelter season.

Council members acknowledged the nonprofits’ arguments while balancing them against public-safety testimony from firefighters and union leaders. The solicitor and administration stressed legal limits on redirecting fee-funded positions and cautioned that some one-time funds are not intended for long-term recurring salary commitments.

In the end the council did not adopt amendments that would substantially cut the CRF; multiple proposals to finance firefighter hires instead via small CRF draws or cash-balance transfers were proposed and defeated in votes later in the meeting.