A project by Laura Melahn, Candidate for Menlo Park District 4 City Council·Get Updates →
About this project

A plain-English window into the City budget.

This site exists to help Menlo Park residents understand where their City tax dollars go, and to bring a sharper question to the next public meeting. Every number traces back to a City document, so you never have to take our word for it.

About the creator

Who built this

This site was built by Laura Melahn, a Menlo Park resident who serves as Vice Chair of the City's Finance and Audit Commission. Laura is also a Candidate for Menlo Park District 4 City Council in 2026.

Laura built this tool to help understand and contextualize the Menlo Park budget and how we are spending money over time across projects and priorities. The tool is just a starting point, and it aims to do three things:

  1. Raise awareness. It would be a win if more residents even know that a City budget process exists! It is happening right now and we are entering a critical 3-week annual window that sets the direction for the entire next fiscal year. June 9 is when to show up / speak up at the City Council meeting about what you care about.
  2. Encourage curiosity. It allows people to explore their own interest areas and see how projects are funded over time. In OpenGov, drilling down to the project level is difficult.
  3. Deepen understanding and participation. By demystifying some of the less intuitive dimensions of municipal budgeting, like how specific funds, grants, and developer agreements interact to get projects up and running in the real world, the tool aims to lower the barrier to participation in the conversation.

To stay in the loop about Laura's work, sign up for updates at lauramelahn.com/signup. To learn about her campaign for City Council, visit lauramelahn.com. Campaign communications, endorsements, and the full Laura Melahn for City Council 2026 disclosures live there.

Where the numbers come from

Source documents

Every figure on this site is built from these public City documents. Data is current as of June 9, 2026.

The Ask feature

How the “Ask” feature works

The Ask a questiontool uses Anthropic's Claude model. When you ask something, the model queries the same sourced database described above and writes a plain-English answer.

  • Every response is generated only from this budget database — it does not browse the web.
  • Responses are not reviewed by City staff and may contain errors. Each answer shows the exact tables and source documents it used so you can check it.
  • Every answer carries the badge “One possible explanation based on the published budget data” and points you to the next public meeting.
  • The authoritative way to get an answer is to attend a public meeting or email the Council directly.

An independent project

This is an independent civic project. It is not an official City of Menlo Park website, and the City does not run or endorse it. For official information, or to weigh in on the budget, contact the Menlo Park City Council.

Found an error? Because every number is sourced, you can check it against the linked document. If something looks wrong, that traceability is how we fix it.