Monterey Hosts Town Hall Meeting to Discuss Latest in Prioritization Initiative

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/City-of-Monterey-Events.html?soid=1102643129353&aid=EHX_5nLi8bc

The City of Monterey is changing the way its annual budget is developed, so programs are transparent and linked to results, and citizens help set priorities. The process is called Priority-based Budgeting and it recasts the budget into programs instead of line items. Citizens are asked to define broad goals, such as quality of life, and then prioritize how they want their tax dollars spent to achieve those goals.

Preliminary results will be presented to the City Council on March 1 in the Council Chamber. Interested citizens are encouraged to attend the meeting. The item is currently scheduled for the evening session of the Council meeting.

Upcoming ICMA Webinar: Getting Ready for the Budgeting Process: How to Use Priority-Based Budgeting

Getting Ready for the Budgeting Process: How to Use Priority-Based ...

We're pleased to be connecting with ICMA for this 1.5 hour webinar. What's different about this webinar from past versions is that:
a.) we'll be completely focusing in on Priority Based Budgeting (whereas another webinar we'll offer in April will be focused entirely on a "How To" for diagnosing Fiscal Health),
b.) we'll be emphasizing in much greater detail the Resource Allocation Model, which is the final tool organizations are using to base resource allocation decisions on the work they've completed in the prioritization process - discover a way to look at all the programs and services your organization offers through the “unique window” that this priority-based budgeting process has created and have better conversations than ever about mandates, fee structures, citizens’ reliance and community partnerships

Citizen Blogger Perspective: Christiansburg asks citizens for input on how tax money should be spent?

Christiansburg asks citizens for input on how tax money should be spent?Depot Dazed Depot Dazed

Christiansburg asks citizens for input on how tax money should be spent? Posted on February 15, 2011 by Carol Lindstrom

My first response to this? “What? Who? How?”. Then it went to “this is a joke, isn’t it?”, no government does that. They must mean it will be something that happens during the scheduled budget meetings that few citizens ever attend. That’s gotta be it. They couldn’t be asking citizens for information in an open format encouraging all citizens to participate.

NOPE WRONG! It is coming in your next water bill if you are a resident of Christiansburg. If you miss that it will be coming to the meetings of various civic groups like the Lions Club, the Kiwanis Club, the NAACP! Mayor Ballengee even offered to have PR Chief Becky Wilburn go to other meetings if those groups will but contact Town Hall and ask.

Town Councilmember Stipes Reflects on Priority Based Budgeting from an Elected Officials Perspective

- AdvanceChristiansburg - Fiscal Year 2011 -2012

"It's safe to say that we all realize that it's impossible for Town Government to be all things to all people, so by this exercise we're taking a step back from budgeting 'business as usual' to break down town operations as they are today and analyzing/prioritizing next year's budget (and future budgets) with the expectations of the community as a whole; a grass-roots approach to actually building a budget as opposed to just projecting the status quo into the next year."

Institute for Local Government Lauds Monterey's Priority Based Budgeting Efforts to Engage Residents in the Process

Monterey Residents Help City Set Budget Priorities Institute for Local Government

In 2010, the City of Monterey engaged staff and residents in a priority-based budgeting process to determine how to best address reduced revenues and a five million dollar budget gap. Rather than make across the board cuts, the city brought in The Center for Priority Based Budgeting to help them engage staff and residents in transparently crafting a budget linked to results and values most important to the community. The city hired consultants who have developed and refined a process for aligning city resources and services with community values that has also been adapted for use in Walnut Creek, Fairfield, and 14 other communities. Residents were asked to further define broad goals set by the City Council, and then to prioritize how they wanted their tax dollars spent to achieve those goals. After extensive public education and outreach, an internal staff dialog and four facilitated public meetings, the consultants will report what they have learned about the priorities of the more than 600 Monterey residents who engaged in the process to the City Council in February of 2011.