Anyone who can’t make it to one of the city’s budget town hall meetings in our neighborhood can stay in the loop virtually.

A video of the city’s 2011 budget proposal is available online.

The budget proposes hiring 400 police officers and closing five city pools. It calls for laying off 100 city employees, mostly from parks and libraries. It does not call for a property-tax increase, but requests a 5.9 percent increase on the water rate, which is about $4.40 a month for the average water user.

Here is the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97VSN1OfI5U&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]