CHARLOTTSVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Charlottesville’s City Manager has scheduled three community budget forums in the next week where people will use fake money instructing them how real money is spent.

City Manager Sam Sanders at City Council’s first 2026 meeting Jan. 5, and now on the city website, has invited residents to the interactive forum on three different nights where attendees will each be issued $10,000 of Monopoly money.

They will then allocate the money across various stations representing city priorities as has been expressed by City Council, allowing participants to show where they believe Council should focus spending in the next budget.

“We’re engaging through the use of Monopoly money, give you a chance to spend money so that you can get to feel what it’s like, and I will show you very quickly that it is no fun,” Sanders said at Monday’s Council meeting.

“You have hard decisions, you have choices, you have options, you have tradeoffs, and you never have enough money to do everything that you want to do.”

City staff will be available at each station to answer questions about how the budget supports City services, programs, and long-term goals, and the feedback from all the forums will be shared with Council.

He said it’s about “using what we have to make the biggest impact that we possibly can, and we come back next year and try to do it all over again”.

The forums are Tuesday, Jan. 13 at City Space; Wednesday, Jan. 14 at Walker Upper Elementary cafeteria, and Thursday, Jan. 15 at the CMS cafeteria.

Community members may want to take a look at the current budget, and City Council’s strategic priorities before or during the forums.