A Window Into Mayor And Council Budget Priorities
Nov 8, 2010 10:00 - 1 Comment
Tonight’s meeting of the Mayor and Council will feature a preview of the 2012 budget. The annual budget process is in its early phases, having recently kicked off.
This year, City Manager Scott Ullery distributed a survey to Mayor and Council members designed to elicit their their thinking behind a range of specific budget ideas. The idea is to develop a set of principles to guide staff as they develop the first-draft budget.
The results of that survey are now public, and they may yield insights that are useful. A table (in PDF) of all the responses, including comments is here.
As I scanned, I found in addition to many areas of agreement, a number of items where there was a clear division: typically one council member marking “strongly disagree” with others clustered in agreement. These areas are interesting, as they provide a good avenue for the Mayor and Council to more fully explain their thinking behind their responses — which can help illuminate what principles are at work.
Thank you to to the City Manager for this good window, and thank you to the Mayor and Council for their thorough and thoughtful response. I look forward to watching the budget process unfold.
Follow on Twitter
Close examination of this document tells a lot about the priorities of the Mayor and Council. It will be interesting to see how the budget , both draft and final form, reflect the positions of the members of the Mayor and Council.