Oh, what a difference a year makes! In the first council meeting of the year, Mayor John Marchione and council began establishing a game plan for prioritizing & measuring the cost of government. They are working together like a well-oiled machine, egos aside, and trusting their competent leader, Mayor Marchione. I'm expecting a lot of productive work from this government. Did you know you can watch them on Tuesday nights on Channel 21, 7:30pm?
"Budgeting by Priorities" as Councilman Richard Cole and Mayor Marchione call it, is a efficient *bottom-up approach being introduced by Mayor Marchione to an eager Council. One and a half years ago Councilman Richard Cole recommended a consultant to educate the Ives Administation and council on "budgeting by outcomes". Mayor Ives never gave the concept support. I remember Rosemarie Ives telling me she simply didn't like the "budgeting for outcomes" idea.
The Ives Administration's preferred budget strategy was a more free-wheeling, top-down, line item method with public input given after the fact - towards the end of the process. The Ives administration's approach was to spend lesser-prioritized money on ancillary services -- leaving neighborhoods & businesses pressured to pass new taxes for critical fire and police services. Citizens were wrongly placed in "the hot seat". Thus the 60% no vote on the first, expensive levy proposal. Priority, basic services should be budgeted & funded FIRST and foremost -- not at the tail end of the process. Councilwoman Kimberly Allen first mentioned how 'urgent safety needs' are used to motivate citizens to approve new property taxes (and indirectly fund non-prioritized items). Where were our priorities?!
The huge difference this year is our new Mayor Marchione has "the tools", experience, and team to move our city to a *bottom-up budget AND Council really wants to roll up their sleeves on this one. The Mayor calls "Budgeting by Priorities" a cultural shift that will take a couple years to fully enact. (Budgeting by Priorities used to be coined Budgeting by Outcomes).
In the meeting, Councilmembers Hank Margeson and Allen voiced strong advocacy for public participation and transparency. A consultant, Beverley Stein, highly recommended Focus Groups for citizen identification of priorities. Surveys, open houses, and Internet were also mentioned. All will be offerred in some way "up front" to the public prior to government vetting.
The Mayor will form a "Guidance Team" of 3-4 citizens to meet 3-4 times/year to advise and assure the integrity of the process. Are you interested? Additional inputs will come from the "community indicator work" done last year by staff (Churchill), planning commission, and council. Of key importance, public input will be up front during "budgeting for priorities". No mention was made of using the public feedback generated from Ives "Budget Summit" forum. I don't know why.
Councilman Dave Carson asked the Mayor how flexible he is about shifting a worker from one department to another department. (In his campaign, Dave promoted cutting staff as a significant control for cost of government). The Mayor skillfully supported his staff saying his excellent departmenatal Directors are flexible and versed in re-training. Interestingly, City Clerk Malissa Files has been re-asigned (promoted) to Budget Manager. That's a positive.
Councilman Hank Myers probably asked the most pointed, strategic questions for the evening. He fills Robinson's seat more than adequately. Mr. Myers indicated the change in the form of the budget would be dramatic and he wanted the average person to be able to read it with the goals readily identified.
Mayor Marchione indicated the budget document would be 1/2 to 1/4 the size of the old Ives document!! To me that speaks volumes (no pun intended) for pruning excess from our bureaucracy with efficiencies. After a very long dry spell, happy days are here again! Could anyone not smile??
* the "bottom-up", budgeting by priorities process will be further explained in future blogs.
"Budgeting by Priorities" as Councilman Richard Cole and Mayor Marchione call it, is a efficient *bottom-up approach being introduced by Mayor Marchione to an eager Council. One and a half years ago Councilman Richard Cole recommended a consultant to educate the Ives Administation and council on "budgeting by outcomes". Mayor Ives never gave the concept support. I remember Rosemarie Ives telling me she simply didn't like the "budgeting for outcomes" idea.
The Ives Administration's preferred budget strategy was a more free-wheeling, top-down, line item method with public input given after the fact - towards the end of the process. The Ives administration's approach was to spend lesser-prioritized money on ancillary services -- leaving neighborhoods & businesses pressured to pass new taxes for critical fire and police services. Citizens were wrongly placed in "the hot seat". Thus the 60% no vote on the first, expensive levy proposal. Priority, basic services should be budgeted & funded FIRST and foremost -- not at the tail end of the process. Councilwoman Kimberly Allen first mentioned how 'urgent safety needs' are used to motivate citizens to approve new property taxes (and indirectly fund non-prioritized items). Where were our priorities?!
The huge difference this year is our new Mayor Marchione has "the tools", experience, and team to move our city to a *bottom-up budget AND Council really wants to roll up their sleeves on this one. The Mayor calls "Budgeting by Priorities" a cultural shift that will take a couple years to fully enact. (Budgeting by Priorities used to be coined Budgeting by Outcomes).
In the meeting, Councilmembers Hank Margeson and Allen voiced strong advocacy for public participation and transparency. A consultant, Beverley Stein, highly recommended Focus Groups for citizen identification of priorities. Surveys, open houses, and Internet were also mentioned. All will be offerred in some way "up front" to the public prior to government vetting.
The Mayor will form a "Guidance Team" of 3-4 citizens to meet 3-4 times/year to advise and assure the integrity of the process. Are you interested? Additional inputs will come from the "community indicator work" done last year by staff (Churchill), planning commission, and council. Of key importance, public input will be up front during "budgeting for priorities". No mention was made of using the public feedback generated from Ives "Budget Summit" forum. I don't know why.
Councilman Dave Carson asked the Mayor how flexible he is about shifting a worker from one department to another department. (In his campaign, Dave promoted cutting staff as a significant control for cost of government). The Mayor skillfully supported his staff saying his excellent departmenatal Directors are flexible and versed in re-training. Interestingly, City Clerk Malissa Files has been re-asigned (promoted) to Budget Manager. That's a positive.
Councilman Hank Myers probably asked the most pointed, strategic questions for the evening. He fills Robinson's seat more than adequately. Mr. Myers indicated the change in the form of the budget would be dramatic and he wanted the average person to be able to read it with the goals readily identified.
Mayor Marchione indicated the budget document would be 1/2 to 1/4 the size of the old Ives document!! To me that speaks volumes (no pun intended) for pruning excess from our bureaucracy with efficiencies. After a very long dry spell, happy days are here again! Could anyone not smile??
* the "bottom-up", budgeting by priorities process will be further explained in future blogs.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteIn my campaign I didn't call for direct or immediate staff reductions, but I did say that I hoped that, in some departments, it might be feasible to allow staff reductions due to attrition or reassignment within city government based on the priorities that the Mayor and Council determine (after ample and up-front public input) to occur.
I do not want any City of Redmond employee fearing for their jobs as that was certainly not the point I made to voters.