Chris Onka, executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, told the Metropolitan Council that CJCC’s work — including pretrial diversion, retail‑theft diversion and jail‑based case navigation — depends on a small city‑parish operating allocation and that the proposed FY2026 line item would not cover core staff or overhead.

“The proposed budget of $125,000 represents a 54.4% reduction,” Onka said while reading the budget text submitted to the council. He emphasized that a separate $260,000 opioid‑abatement supplement is restricted to pretrial diversion services and cannot be used to pay CJCC’s three core employees or routine operating costs.

Onka described measurable program results: the retail‑theft diversion effort enrolled about 45 people with 19 graduates in its first year, jail case navigators have interviewed roughly 3,000 newly arrested people and connected almost that many to resources, and CJCC‑led reentry coalitions connect dozens of providers to support returning citizens.

Judge Don Johnson, CJCC board chair, framed the request in systemwide terms: “If you wanna do public safety, you have to fund us all,” he said, arguing that courts, public defenders and reentry services must be funded in parallel with law enforcement. He urged the council to avoid cutting offices that move cases through the justice system and recommended increasing public defender funding rather than reducing it.

Councilmembers asked what level of reduction CJCC could survive. Onka said cuts comparable to other departments (roughly 10–12%) would buy time to seek alternative funds, but the 54.4% reduction would likely force the loss of one to two of three core staff and impair daily operations.

Kristel Slaughter, representing the mayor’s office, said the administration is confronting a tight fiscal year and pledged to continue discussions with council members and department leaders: “There is just not enough money to go around,” she said, and the executive branch is being cut heavily; the mayor and administration will meet with agencies to refine recommendations.

Next steps: CJCC asked the council to preserve sufficient City‑Parish core funding to maintain three core positions and basic operations while continuing to raise grant support for program delivery. The council and administration said they will meet this week to consider amendments to the proposed budget.