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A public hearing on the budget could bring out citizens for tonight’s full council agenda. 

Yet the same public will be unable to know what expenditures are recommended in the mayor and vice mayor’s competing budget proposals, both of which will be released at a time Tuesday that was still undetermined Monday evening. 

Each of the competing budgets will consider how to spend some $1 million-$3 million in available funds – $1 million if the budget follows the city manager’s itemized expenditures and $3 million if it does not. 

Agencies, organizations and city departments are all competing for the money for projects as diverse as paying the San Francisco Mime Troop to lead the How Berkeley Can You Be? parade (Berkeley’s X-plicit players march gratuit) or funding a jobs program for youth. The requests mount to more than $12 million. Decisions will be made next week. 

The proposed spay-neuter ordinance will be hotly debated. 

Also on the agenda is a public hearing on revoking Kragen Auto Parts’ use permit. The Zoning Adjustment Board is recommending that the business at 1600 University Ave. shut its doors, after failing to clean around its business and not stopping its patrons from working on cars nearby. The council will make its decision at a later meeting. 

Another hot topic is the search for a new city manager. The council may adopt a process for the search. Councilmember Linda Maio’s suggestions for the process, on the consent calendar agenda, had not been released by Monday evening. City Manager Jim Keene is leaving Berkeley in August to take a post in Tucson. 

One more item the council will likely not see until it’s time to vote on it, is a finalized copy of the city’s Living Wage Ordinance, which councilmembers approved in concept several weeks ago. This item also appears on the consent calendar. 

Another item on consent is raising the speed limit on Claremont Avenue from 25 mph to 30 mph. 

The council will also consider approving a 69-unit condominium project at 2136 Center St., a $700,000 contract for dock and restroom replacement at the Marina, and an ordinance that allows for the removal of oak trees which endanger life or property. 

The City Council meeting follows the Housing Authority meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The meetings are broadcast on KPFB, 89.3-FM and televised on B-TV, Cable Ch-25.