You've got questions, and we've got answers. Thanks for participating in the latest edition of the Donor Q&A. As happened in the past, many of your questions informed our daily reporting, including yesterday's top story on tax rebate checks.

You can see previous installments of the series here.

I've noticed that Councilwomen Kenya Gibson and Sarah Abubaker are quoted often. Obviously, they speak the most, but how do you determine who to quote and when? 

Who gets quoted depends on who’s talking the most, who’s willing to talk to the press and my best assessment of what would be most interesting and relevant to you, the reader.

I try to include as many perspectives as I can, but some council members make more waves than others. Gibson and Abubaker have a little alliance going as first-term council members eager to sharply question how things are done at City Hall and push for change, so that’s why they’ve gotten a lot of digital ink lately. The new guard vs. old guard dynamic is the big, overarching story of the City Council at the moment. Those two are the very vocal new guard, and it seems like the more veteran members are sort of sitting back and still trying to figure out how to manage the more confrontational style of the newcomers.

Conflict is one of the most basic elements of what makes news news, so people more willing to engage in policy debates and lay out a clearly stated viewpoint tend to get quoted more. Not all conflict is productive or relevant, so I try to avoid amplifying pointless grandstanding. It’s not easy to tell the difference, so it’s a judgement call I may not always get right.

It’s an easier decision with some stories than others. If there’s a proposal or issue affecting a particular part of the city, I try to make sure the council member who represents that area is quoted since they know best about how their constituents feel. If there’s a proposal championed by a particular council member, I’d want to give them substantial space to lay out their idea and respond to any questions or concerns about it. If there’s a major disagreement, I try to quote the best arguments from both sides, no matter who’s making them.

Some of it also comes down to council members’ different communication styles. If someone talks for two or three minutes and I still can’t figure out where they stand or the main point they’re trying to get across, that’s less likely to make for a good quote.

A journalism teacher once told me that if an article is a meal you’re cooking, the quotes are spices sprinkled in to avoid blandness. To give an article flavor, I listen for quotes that are zippy or heartfelt and cut through complex jargon to make something easy to understand. So if I’m trying to write a lively story you’ll want to read, I’m going for quotes with spice. — Graham Moomaw

Can you detail the budgets of City Council members? What can they spend on their own and how could they individually finance a “pet project?”