AgdaPkt 2005-06-20 - Laserfiche WebLink

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If/f- VI - / REPORT To the Honorable Mayor and City Council From the, City Manager June 20, 2005 Subject Results from Community Input Meetings on the 2005/2006 Recommended Budget Recommendation The material is provided for your information only. No action is requested. Background At your Apri/14, 2004 meeting, in keeping with our City's core purpose of, "Building a Great Community Together", we proposed that two meetings be held to receive input on the 2004/05 budget situation. Our goals for the process were to educate the public about our financial situation; get direct reactions from residents on our recommendations; and potentially receive some alternative ideas for Council consideration. Two very successful sessions were held, where a total of 51 community members attended and provided input. Our experiment with involving community on budget issues produced some interesting results and numerous opportunities for learning. In February 2005, at the Council's Priority setting session, Council added "Community Building" as one of our overarching guidelines. We are more committed than ever to work with the community and continue our quest of community building, and so in preparation of the 2005/2006 budget, we once again invited community members to attend one .of two community input meetings on the proposed budget and reductions. Invitations to the first session went to former participants in Partnership Academy for Community Teamwork (PACT) and the Community Builders Program because we felt that their experience in those programs would bring a unique perspective to our budget issues. In addition to sending direct invitations to PACT and Community Builders, notices were also sent to all e-news participants and a press release was issued to the media inviting participation. A total of 42 participants attended the first session, a wonderful increase from last year's numbers. The second session occurred during Finance's PACT night, where another 37 interested community members attended. Each session began with a presentation by the City Manager and Finance Director followed by time for questions on the current financial situation and proposed budget reductions. We then moved into conversation groups and received report outs from each table on the most important things they felt Council should consider or ask questions about in reviewing the budget. This was followed by a presentation and discussion on the recommended new revenues, and other potential sources of new revenue. Responses to recommended reductions and new revenue concepts are included as Attachments 1 and 2 to this report. No attempt has been made to categorize, group or otherwise manipulate the input, as we felt it would be most useful to Council in its raw form.