The City Council met with Department Directors and me for a Council-Staff retreat this past Saturday. The biggest topic of discussion was the process we use to prepare the City’s annual budget. I think it’s fair to say that nobody involved in that process this year came away from it satisfied. The retreat discussion on the budget seemed to be centered on the following points:
1. Information – How deep do Councilmembers want to examine the individual expenses that make up the budget? How should staff handle the situation when one member of the Council wants a large amount of detailed budget information and the other Councilmembers do not? How much staff time should the City devote to a research effort like that?
2. Choices – Should staff offer the Council its best recommendation and justification on the budget, or should it offer the Council a menu of budget/operational choices?
3. Public – When should the public get a chance to comment on the budget? At the beginning? In the middle? At the end? All three? None?
4. Timing – When should the budget process start? How long should it take?
5. Politics – At what point in the budget process do Councilmembers exercise their political judgment about what the community wants and/or needs?
The Council did not reach complete agreement on any of these points, and I did not expect them to. Different points of view is healthy and expected in our elected representatives. The Council seemed to reach consensus on the following:
1. The Council wants an earlier start to the budget preparation process.
2. The Council wants an earlier point in the budget process to formally accept public feedback.
3. The Council wants staff to give some thought to developing a process to periodically evaluate the City’s policies, programs and functions. They want staff to evaluate for both effectiveness and budget impacts.
4. The Council wants staff to analyze the City’s early budget forecast for 2007 and report to the Council on what the “top ten” factors will be that drive our revenue and expense estimates in that budget.
We’ll get started on that right away.
