Budget Process

[council4_vaughan]

How would you guys like to see the budget process go this year?

Is there anything we can do to improve it?

In the past we have waited for the City to give us a budget which is then presented to us by the departments. The meeting can be long and tends to stifle discussion between the councilmembers because we all just want to get out of there after a few hours.

I think it is important for each councilmember to sit with staff and get their individual questions answered. Getting answers at the budget hearing only drags out the process. Rather, I think the council meeting should be for discussions amongst the council about potential changes to the budget. If the councilmembers come prepared, then we can have a good discussion about what is important to us.

Obviously, we want the public to be informed about the budget so they can provide input but a presentation at a council meeting doesn't seem to do that well. Putting out a presentation and draft well in advance of a council meeting so that they can study it would be better.

In my mind, it would work like this:

1. Staff seek input from council on budget initiatives those councilmembers would like (perhaps this is an agenda item early in the process or perhaps it is handled on this message board)
2. Staff puts together a draft based on their recommendations and feedback from council
3. Staff publishes a draft with summary presentation for the council and the public
4. Councilmembers meet with staff to get their own questions answered and to help them determine if anything should be adjusted
5. We have a council meeting where we discuss what if anything we would like to change in the draft budget presented by staff

What do you guys think?

 

[council3_rubal]

I very much support the idea of improving the budget process. Departments are not required to prioritize budgets based on need. In the last budget process, it was proposed to establish a four-tier prioritization. 1)Budget essential city services and the personnel that would provide services as recovery from a major prolonged disaster, 2) budget items that ensure operations of all basic services without amenities, 3) funding amenities and nonessential enterprise operations, and 4) nonessential staff development expenses.

Significant progress was made in the last budget year when the City acknowledged that cuts could be made on the budget line items without cutting budgets of critical services like police and fire.

“1. Staff seek input from council on budget initiatives those councilmembers would like (perhaps this is an agenda item early in the process or perhaps it is handled on this message board). “

This is at first seems somewhat counterintuitive since the Council does not have detailed operational involvement to base recommendations and requires staff to provide budgeted line items. However, high-order recommendations, as you have done in the past establishing a limit for the budget reserves would fit into this point nicely. High-order recommendations also could be for staff to have the willingness to make necessary line-item budget adjustments to meet the objective of a reduced property tax goal recommended by the Council. Again, we have broken the ice in the last budget cycle without jeopardizing critical services.

The items 2-5 above are somewhat conditional on the implementation of point #1. This platform has not proven to be a useful tool for Council group collaboration. Therefore, I would support a motion in favor of bringing the discussion of process improvements in the Budget process to a future agenda.