Top 100 GovTech Influencers and Brands Creating the Operating System of Government!

“GovTech is the operating system of government!” 

 

“GovTech is a rapidly expanding industry across the globe that has an engaging, collaborative, inspiring community of individuals within government, nonprofits and private industry who all share the commonality of employing new and existing technologies to improve the lives of citizens."

GovTech is generally defined as the technology infrastructure that government departments use to do their internal work or deliver services to their “customers” ie. citizens.

With 89,000+ government entities at just the local level and 22 Million civil servants nationwide, the diversity of technology tools used to operate the “business” of government is extremely broad. Government uses technology to manage internal projects and procurement, to track infrastructure, to regulate zoning — to name just a few examples. Government also uses external/citizen-facing tools to deliver health care, collect taxes/fees, to issue licenses and permits, to convene citizens, to manage water and sewer, and on and on…

On the other end of the continuum,  “civictech” is generally defined as the technology infrastructure that people use to do their “job” of being a citizen. As the citizen “operating system”, civictech includes technologies that, for example, enable citizens to connect with their member of congress, gather support for a petition, organize one’s community around an important cause, organize a local park cleanup, etc.

Onalytica recently published a report detailing the GovTech Top 100 Influencers and Brands.

We are very excited to report the Center for Priority Based Budgeting (CPBB) is identified as #91 among the Top 100 GovTech Brands, and CPBB CCO Erik Fabian is among the Top 100 GovTech Influencers. 

The Need for Online Priority Based Budgeting

At the beginning of 2015, over 80 communities across North America have implemented Priority Based Budgeting (PBB), impacting over 11 million citizens across the US and Canada. Now in 2016, over 130 cities, counties, school districts and special districts will be practicing PBB, using the process and tools to reshape the way all of a community’s resources are leveraged to achieve Results, and inviting citizens further into an authentic role of influence and participation. 

In 2008, CPBB Co-founders Chris Fabian and Jon Johnson had one simple plan: bail out Jefferson County, Colorado, from their multi-million dollar deficit. The roots of PBB came to life to fulfill that mission.

By 2009/2010, ICMA, GFOA, NLC and the Alliance for Innovation urged the two to broaden their ability to serve many local governments surviving the Great Recession. The Center for Priority Based Budgeting (CPBB) was created “to produce a replicable and scalable methodology and tool set for all local governments” to use.

Entering 2016, over 130 communities had implemented PBB. CPBB's mission had evolved to “serving as many organizations as possible, as effectively and swiftly as possible” and our processes and tools evolved to fulfill that purpose.

Enter the "Tech" in CPBB's "GovTech Solutions...

In order to do that, ResourceX was created to provide an online platform that dramatically reduced the time an organization spent “implementing PBB,” enabling leaders to shift their focus to “using PBB data to make actionable change.” And the dramatically evolved OnlinePBB toolset has made the data immediately actionable – literally pointing leaders directly to their opportunity areas for dramatic resource re-allocation.

As Jamie Rouch from the City of Branson, Missouri put it, the evolution of the PBB Master Plan has necessarily shifted from helping communities “implement PBB, to using PBB data to make change!”

Our scalable and replicable online priority based budgeting platform, powered by ResourceX proprietary software, allows organizations to exhibit their dedication to financial transparency and accountability to their citizens by optimizing their approach to allocating their precious resources to the outcomes that matter most and impact their community to the highest degree.

ResourceX was founded to grow the community of priority based budgeting by enabling organizations with the best possible tools and training. As the community grows, and more organizations adopt this best practice, all will benefit as resources are allocated to the greater good, and results are achieved.

Online Priority Based Budgeting was created to meet the needs of a rapidly increasing user community:

   1.)   implementing the process in an efficient and intuitive, web-based platform,

   2.)   sustaining and evolving your work over several years, and

   3.)   transparently sharing the outcomes of your work, internally within the organization, and externally with citizens

 

 

The Creation of Online PBB Budgeting

The Center for Priority Based Budgeting has teamed with Resource Exploration to build the process of PBB into an online application. Resource X brings experience in database and web design needed to facilitate this transformation.

Enabling the Full Potential of Priority Based Budgeting

Online PBB allows for easier access, and provides an intuitive user-interface for staff, elected officials and citizens alike! Enjoy all the same functionality of the Excel version. Filter by Community vs. Governance, by Accounting Fund, by Department/Division, by Budgeting Perspective, and by Basic Program Attributes and Results. Generate program lists based on any combination of PBB criteria. Additionally, you can elect to view comparable data from organizations of similar population and budget size. Know what your organization does, what it costs, and its value.

The CPBB is thrilled and proud to be included in the Top 100 Influencers and Brands along with so many other talented and innovative companies striving to make an impact on governance and citizen satisfaction. Please read the full article below.

GovTech: TOP 100 INFLUENCERS and BRANDS

Regardless of your political leanings and whether you advocate for more or for less government, governments play a central role in organizing and delivering services that citizens cannot do on their own, like building and maintaining infrastructures, organising transportation or offering health services. GovTech is how the nascent ecosystem of startups and tech companies aiming to digitalise government are known. Transforming the public sector to offer new public services and make it more efficient, fast and more transparent and ease the communication between government and its citizens. In the end, the public sector will  bring all their services online, in a more transparent and cost-effective way.

The government is eager to explore new technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things and blockchain. Startups that solve critical ethical points for government employees will be the beneficiaries and govtech will prove to be one of the biggest market opportunities hiding in plain sight. Governments around the world spend $400 billion on IT and software each year to help improve agility and reduce bureaucracy.

WHAT ARE THE EXPERTS SAYING?

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Evan Kirstel - Entrepreneur and Social Media Business Strategist at UCStrategies.com

“Technology moves faster than government, and if government wants to take advantage of the all the opportunity and innovation happening in tech, then it needs to find a new middle ground between the Crazy cycles of the market in the tech sector and the sluggish, innovation-stifling ways of traditional government bureaucracy. It’s exiting following innovative startups partnering with thought leaders and change makers in the government to push traditional boundaries. A great time to follow the #Govtech space!“

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Lisa Abeyta – Founder and CEO at APPCityLife Inc.

“GovTech is a rapidly expanding industry across the globe that has an engaging, collaborative, inspiring community of individuals within government, nonprofits and private industry who all share the commonality of employing new and existing technologies to improve the lives of citizens. It seems only natural that this global community would gravitate to global networks like Twitter where we can all learn from innovators in other countries, explore ideas, challenge assumptions and establish relationships with others who are also focused on using tech for good to improve government and the communities they serve.“

TOPIC ANALYSIS

We were interested in seeing which topics were spoken of the most in the context of GovTech, so we analysed tweets and blogs from the top 100 influencers and brands between 1st January – 5th December 2016 and counted the number of times various topics were mentioned to create a topic share of voice pie chart:

The most popular topic mentioned in tweets and blogs by the top future of work influencers was Innovation with a 25% share of voice, illustrating how most of the influencers think Government needs more technical innovation. Startups was second with a 17% share of voice reflexing GovTech is a new sector and most of the companies working on this space are small Startups.  IoT and Big Data were the 3rd most popular topics both receiving 16% of all mentions among the top GovTech influencers and brands. The next most popular topic was AI with a 7% Share of Voice. Health and Cloud received a 5% share of voice. Meanwhile, Smart City, Open Data and Leadership got 3% of all mentions.

MAPPING THE COMMUNITY

We were very interested in seeing which brand and individuals were leading the discussion around GovTech, so we analysed over 390K tweets mentioning the key words: govtech OR “gov.tech” OR “gov tech” OR ((“public services” OR public services OR “transport service” OR transportservice OR “transport services” OR transportservices OR “health service” OR healthservice OR “public sector” OR publicsector OR government) AND (“new tech” OR newtech OR “new technology” OR newtechnology OR “emerging tech” OR emergingtech OR “emerging technology” OR emergingtechnology OR efficiency OR innovation OR “tech firms” OR techfirms OR “technology firms” OR technologyfirms OR “tech companies” OR techcompanies OR “technology companies” OR technologycompanies)) from 7th October – 29th October 2016. We then identified the top 100 most influential brands and individuals leading the discussion on Twitter. What we discovered was a very engaged community, with much discussion between individuals and brands. Below you can see a network map of the online GovTech conversation with the Top 20 influencer Clifford McDowell  at the centre. This map was created with our Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM). Be sure to click on the map to enjoy the full size network diagram in greater detail.

The Center for Priority Based Budgeting has teamed with Resource Exploration to build the process of PBB into an online application. Resource X brings experience in database and web design needed to facilitate this transformation.

And OnlinePBB is now "live" and actively being applied in dozens of communities. These communities are now utilizing actionable data to allocate their precious resources to the outcomes that matter most and impact their community to the highest degree. To join the priority based budgeting GovTech movement, contact us today!

Keep an eye on the CPBB blog for further updates. Sign-up for our social media pages so you stay connected with TEAM CPBB!

If you're thinking of jumping into the world of Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting we would certainly like to be part of your efforts! Contact us to schedule a free webinar and identify the best CPBB service option(s) to meet your organization's particular needs.

Strathcona County Blazing A PBB Trail in Alberta, Canada

"This approach ensures every decision council makes is viewed through a priority lens." - Mayor Roxanne Carr

Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada, is leading the way in priority based business planning and budgeting. As the first municipality in Canada to implement online PBB, this will result in Strathcona County being more proactive, strategic and effective in program and service delivery.

Strathcona County is not only among the leading implementers of PBB who are driving this evolution; the County’s leaders in many ways are responsible for creating the evolution.

The following four stories illuminate the County’s pioneering innovations that have all become PBB best practices:

1.     Priority Based Business Planning and Budgeting – Strathcona County’s PBB budget process

provides a tool for allocating resources within a broader and all encompassing Strategic Plan and Business Planning framework. This is the most comprehensive integration of PBB within a policy-guiding Strategic Plan, and a Business Plan designed to drive organizational excellence. PBB is a resource allocation tool that depends on strong policy vision and direction, and a mechanism to infuse policy into operations – Strathcona County’s implementation has set the bar at new heights in this regard.

2.     Staff empowerment – ultimately, the “lens” that PBB establishes to guide resource re-allocation decisions is only a tool; the lens serves no purpose, but to serve the “trained eyes” of policy makers, executive administration, and ultimately citizens. Here again, Strathcona County took a completely unique approach, as they designed and implemented a County-wide training program to teach each department how to use the PBB tool suite, how to understand the programs highlighted as opportunity areas, and how to drive recommendations for resource reallocation. This approach is now being recommended to all PBB implementers using Strathcona’s training materials.

3.     Capital Project Prioritization – many have talked about, many have desired to do it, but Strathcona County was among the very first to actually implement and integrate an evaluation of Capital Projects using PBB methodology.

4.     Open PBB Data – in the “Coming Soon” category of innovation, Strathcona County will once again lead the way as they plan to roll out an “open data” initiative, leveraging their PBB data.

The Sherwood Park News recently published an opinion article written by Strathcona County Mayor Roxanne Carr (Heading into county budget 2017). The full article is posted below.

Heading into county budget 2017

Today, council begins its formal budget discussions. I want to provide you with a snapshot of the progress we have made in applying a different approach to the budget — using a series of tools, including a priority-based lens to these discussions.

Council refers to this as the formal part of the process, because, in fact, we deal with budget decisions and strategic planning throughout the year. Whether we are discussing our community’s growth, looking at approving large scale projects — like the Multi-purpose Agricultural Facility — and/or determining service levels for residents, every decision council makes has a direct impact on the budget.

Becoming Canada’s most livable community is no small feat. We believe it is only possible to achieve this goal if we have an engaged and empowered community.

Based on community feedback and our desire to plan for a high quality of life, council set 12 prioritized goals in the strategic plan. This plan serves as the foundation on which the county’s corporate and department business plans, and priority-based budgets are developed.

In 2016, Strathcona County had one of the lowest municipal tax increases in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. At the same time, we were successful in maintaining service levels and improving infrastructure. We achieved this balance by focusing on priorities, holding the line on spending, finding efficiencies and allocating a portion of the 2015 municipal surplus to 2016 budget needs in our community.

Every year, council incorporates the projected and actual municipal surplus into budget discussions. Surpluses of three to five per cent are a result of cost savings and efficiencies throughout the year. Council allocates those same dollars back to its residents in the form of lower tax increases and improved capital infrastructure. Allocating surpluses to capital infrastructure projects allows us to build more roads and facilities than would have otherwise been possible.

Strathcona County is one of only a few municipalities in Canada that has adopted the priority-based budgeting (PBB) approach. This approach ensures every decision council makes is viewed through a priority lens.

The Center for Priority Based Budgeting, creators of the approach, has stated: “Among priority-based budgeting implementers, there is an evolution underway. Strathcona County is not only among the leading implementers — driving the PBB evolution — in many ways, the county’s leaders, are responsible for creating the evolution”.

So, it’s safe to say, our county is certainly blazing a trail.

Council is very proud of our progress. This approach, together with wise investments and a prudent fiscal attitude, has allowed us to take advantage of opportunities. These include accessing available federal and provincial grants, entering into beneficial partnerships, and contracting work at reduced prices to economically advance infrastructure and other priorities.

Council has had a lot of forward-thinking conversations with administration throughout the year, giving them clear direction. This has resulted in proactive, prudent recommendations that support community priorities, and respond to a challenging economy.

We are acutely aware of the challenges facing our community, and continue to talk to residents, business and industry to ensure we know what they need, and what we need to do to help.

We have clearly identified the priorities — both current and future — and ensured more measures are in place so we can manage, evaluate and report on our performance and progress.

Late last year, as part of this process, we completed a detailed inventory of more than 300 programs we provide the community. We assessed each program according to its alignment to priorities. Council will make use of this knowledge in Budget 2017 to better understand program spending toward priorities, identify opportunities for efficiencies, and apply our resources to what matters most.

We now have the tools to make better decisions, based on solid evidence; we are focused on ensuring we deliver the right programs and services, at the correct levels and cost. Administration has gone to great lengths to identify efficiencies that will reduce costs without compromising our programs and services.

Council has received detailed budget information and will continue its open 2017 budget discussions on Nov. 23, 25, 28 and Dec. 1. Final approval of the budget is expected to take place in early December. Throughout these discussions, we will respect the unique nature of our municipality and work diligently together to maintain a balance of rural and urban service levels.

With these tools and prudent budget decisions, I am confident our municipality is well-prepared to weather the current economic storm and come out even stronger on the other side. In fact, based on my nine years on council, I can say unequivocally that we are in the best position we have ever been to realize our goals.

I invite you to listen to our budget discussions in council chambers, in person or via the webcast (www.strathcona.ca/webcast). You will see how planning for the long-term, while always focused on our community’s top priorities, is creating a bright future for you and your family.

Click here to view the full 2017 Strathcona County recommended budget.

Keep an eye on the CPBB blog for further updates. Sign-up for our social media pages so you stay connected with TEAM CPBB!

If you're thinking of jumping into the world of Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting we would certainly like to be part of your efforts! Contact us to schedule a free webinar and identify the best CPBB service option(s) to meet your organization's particular needs.

Strategically Aligning Dollars with Priorities in Washington County, WI

"This budget is really exciting for me. It represents the beginning of some things that I've wanted to do since becoming administrator here two budgets ago: more transparently articulate the policy decisions within the budget to the public and use County priorities to make funding decisions." - County Administrator Joshua Schoemann

Washington County, WI is the first County Government in Wisconsin to implement priority based budgeting. CPBB co-founder Chris Fabian stated in March 2015, "To see Washington County take the lead in Wisconsin is a true mark of their leadership, their dedication to financial transparency and accountability to their citizens, and to optimizing their approach to allocating their precious resources to the outcomes that matter most and impact their community to the highest degree."

And now Washington County, Wisconsin has developed a reputation as best in it’s class among those PBB communities ushering in this bold evolution. In it’s first year of implementation, the County successfully implemented the process, and has already undertaken a merger of it’s Health Department with a neighboring County, realizing substantial savings. Regionalization of services and public-private partnership (“P3’s”) are among the greatest sources of opportunity for PBB communities (at the 2016 PBB Conference, the PBB data-mine demonstrated $409million in opportunities among PBB communities alone in 2016).

The County has recently released its 2017 Recommended Budget. County Administrator Joshua Schoemann states, "This budget is really exciting for me. It represents the beginning of some things that I've wanted to do since becoming administrator here two budgets ago: more transparently articulate the policy decisions within the budget to the public and use County priorities to make funding decisions." 

Excerpts from Washington County, WI 2017 Proposed Budget

This budget is another excellent step toward financial sustainability for the County. In an ongoing era of tax levy freezes, the resources of our citizens, and thus our County, are limited. Therefore, if we hope to provide excellent citizen service we need to eliminate deficit spending and direct our limited resources appropriately, being less concerned about the quantity of services we provide and more concerned about the quality of those services.

As you know, we committed to a number of significant goals in 2017 including maintaining the tax rate, reducing the need to access fund balance (County reserves) to balance the budget, replenishing the health insurance fun and funding a 3rd consecutive pay plan adjustment for our employees. I am pleased to report that not only did we accomplish all of these goals but we took a major step forward in transitioning our budgeting to align dollars with priorities through the use of priority based budgeting. We developed, and utilized for the first time, our “fiscal health tool” during the budget process to demonstrate the impact of 2017 budget decisions on the long term fiscal health of Washington County. 

The actions taken in the 2017 Budget represent a continuation of a plan for fiscal sustainability and the County’s commitment to delivering high quality services, while keeping taxes low. 

IMPLEMENT PRIORITY BASED BUDGETING 

In addition to working towards our budget goals, Washington County faces a significant challenge each year as our operational costs go up roughly $1.5 million while the State imposed property tax levy caps limit the amount of possible new tax collections. This means that each year we start the process seeking this amount just to cover the same slate of items from the prior year. Last year, we committed to changing our strategy in Washington County by avoiding across the board cuts and pay freezes for employees in the face of increasing health insurance costs. We have spent the past two years implementing priority based budgeting including identification and cost analysis of roughly 1300 programs in order of priority from lowest to highest. The below charts demonstrate the County’s 2016 approved spending toward our community priorities. These priorities are fully outlined in the Strategic Results portion of this budget document. 

Our priorities, and the affiliated rankings of every program against these priorities, assisted in the guidance of major expenditure and revenue decisions included in the proposed 2017 budget. The significant budget changes are presented below.

Lower Priority Decisions

·       The Human Services Department made significant efforts to reduce low priority areas in order to realign dollars to higher priority programs. Several non-mandated programs comprised of tax levy contributions to local organizations scored as low priorities, and funding was repurposed.

o   Homeless Coalition - $25,000 in county levy support.

o   Big Brothers Big Sisters - $7,200 in county levy support.

o   Friends of Abused Families - $17,800 in county levy support.

o   Boys and Girls Club - $5,500 in county funding.

·       The Parks and Planning Department reduced their property tax levy reliance by $270,000 in the proposed 2017 budget.

o   The Washington County Golf Course expects a profit in 2017 based on historical trends and an anticipated boost in usage related to the U.S. Open being held in the County. Based on this, $100,000 of Golf Course earnings will be transferred to park operations to reduce reliance on tax levy.

o   Increased revenues to move closer towards self-sufficiency. Parks increases include additional rental revenues for park properties ($35,000) and charges for mowing and snowplowing services to the Agriculture and Industrial Society ($75,000). Land Conservation increases include fee increases in the tree and prairie seed program ($10,000) and sanitary permit services ($25,000).

o   Reduced staffing levels by 2.80 FTE in lower priority programs through attrition and department restructures resulting in $212,000 of savings used to fund higher priority initiatives described above. 

o   Small program eliminations and changes related to the Get Moving Washington County website ($1,700) and water quality monitoring ($4,000).

·       Facilities reduced staffing levels by 2.14 FTE creating savings of $50,000 in personnel costs by contracting out cleaning services at the Public Agency Center and implementing changes to service levels.

·       Finance eliminated one Accounting Assistant position in anticipation of a workload reduction related to the implementation of a new time and attendance system.

·       The Aging and Disability Resource Center eliminated several low priority programs including the annual Senior Conference.

·       County Clerk eliminated the customer directory and referral program generating savings of $22,500.

·       Direct funding for the History Center was reduced by about $7,000.

  

Safe and secure community

·       Create a 0.33 FTE Communications Officer position, which represents nearly 700 additional hours to help avoid scheduling issues and overtime. This change results in $24,100 of additional personnel expenditures.

·       Create a 1.0 FTE Sheriff Deputy position at a cost of $82,762 in personnel expenditures.

·       Create a 0.50 FTE investigator to work on special assignments at a cost of $26,359 in personnel expenditures.

·       Create a 0.58 FTE Assistant County Attorney in the District Attorney’s office to prosecute cases more effectively and timely at a cost of $48,197 in personnel expenditures. 

Access to basic physical, behavioral and socio-economic needs

·       Net increase of 1.5 FTE in the Human Services Department to create a Youth Services Team to better manage children’s programming via cross-divisional services. This change results in $144,889 of additional personnel expenditures. 

Effective mobility and reliable infrastructure

·       Create a 1.0 FTE Project Manager in the Highway Department to provide in-house services for Highway and other County projects at a cost of $98,000 in personnel expenditures.

·       The 2017 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) includes $3 million to support County Trunk Highway (CTH) infrastructure. 

Economic growth and vitality

·       The 2017 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) includes $1.097 million for Economic Development Washington County. 

STRATEGIC RESULTS 

Washington County is the first county in Wisconsin to implement Priority Based Budgeting (PBB). PBB is recognized as a leading best practice in local government and provides a comprehensive review of the entire organization, identifying every program offered, determining the costs of every program, and evaluating the relevance of every program based on the goals the organization is trying to achieve. In 2015, the County Board identified four strategic goals for what the County should be for its residents, and a set of practices designed to achieve each goal. Below are those goals (the center of wheel) and the related practices (therim of the wheel) to achieve them.

FINANCIAL FORECAST & LONG RANGE PLANNING

Long-range financial plans provide direction to guide decisions that affect years beyond the current budget. Washington County uses long range financial planning to project the cost impact of current programs and gauge against projected revenues in an effort to identify and determine the extent of actions necessary to close the gap between revenues and expenditures.

The forecast was developed as part of the Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) efforts and utilizes an online Fiscal Health Tool to provide dynamic information for the planning process. The budget team and the County Board are able to view and modify this information in a shared way to assist in providing direction for future actions and planning of resource allocations in a way that reflects the Priorities identified during the early stages of the PBB process.

Prior year fiscal year-end results are reviewed and estimates are provided for the impacts of other County planning processes, including the Capital Improvement Plan. Assumptions are also made about funded programs and priorities, state/federal revenues and funding priorities, economic conditions, staffing levels, and other known objectives. Finally, the budget team works with staff in other departments to get expertise in developing key financial assumptions, which are used to project impacts to future expenditures and revenues for a five year period. 

Below is a summary of the County’s financial outlook, including all current 2017 Budget assumptions, which focuses on the County’s primary operating expenditures and the revenues that support them.

The difference between revenues and expenditures represent the budget deficit (reflected in parenthesis above). The deficit identified in 2015-2017 is the budgeted use of fund balance. The difference identified in 2018-2021 represent the structural deficit that will exist if expenditures are not reduced and/or revenues are not increased. The chart above has been presented to the County Board to make it clear that there are important decisions to come, and simply budgeting the use of fund balance is not a sustainable practice. The discussion that followed examined several ideas and decisions points and how they impact the deficit – in 2017 and in future years. The Fiscal Health Tool enables the County to quickly and easily demonstrate the financial impact of today’s decisions and reflect them in a graphical format as shown above.

Congratulations to Team Washington County for your exemplary implementation of priority based budgeting. Strategically aligning dollars with priorities is at the essence of PBB!

Keep an eye on the CPBB blog for further updates. Sign-up for our social media pages so you stay connected with TEAM CPBB!

If you're thinking of jumping into the world of Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting we would certainly like to be part of your efforts! Contact us to schedule a free webinar and identify the best CPBB service option(s) to meet your organization's particular needs.

City of Kenmore Officials Find the Fun in 2017-18 Priority Based Budget

 

“Our major theme of the next two-year budget is ‘Where’s the fun?’”

The City of Kenmore, Washington was the second organization to implement PBB, along with the City of Bainbridge Island, and both have been practitioners since 2013.

Where Kenmore particularly stands out, is in their commitment to apply PBB not only to their ongoing operations, but to their capital projects as well. The evolution of PBB to incorporate the rigorous evaluation of one-time initiatives and capital projects relative to their benefit to the community has been a recent development; led by cities like Kenmore, WA, South Jordan, UT and Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada.

Capital project PBB is a completely practical and rational approach to long-term CIP planning.

The City of Kenmore, and the City of Bainbridge Island are not only pioneers in Priority Based Budgeting, but also the launch of OnlinePBB (where Kenmore incorporated their capital project prioritization).

The Bothell - Kenmore Reporter recently published an article written by Catherine Krummey with a focus on City of Kenmore budget development (City of Kenmore officials find the fun in 2017-2018 budget). This piece is reprinted in full below.

City of Kenmore Officials Find the Fun in 2017-18 Priority Based Budget

City Manager Rob Karlinsey, Finance Director Joanne Gregory and other city staff members presented the 2017-18 biennial budget to the Kenmore City Council at the Oct. 24 meeting.

The city used a priority-based budgeting process to develop the budget, identifying the priorities through looking at the council’s goals for Kenmore and other policies such as the 20-Year Vision Statement and the Target Zero resolution for pedestrian and bicycle safety.

“The budget builds on our pedestrian and bicycle safety momentum,” Karlinsey said.

He also cited economic development as a top priority for the city with the goal of expanding employment and making the city more vibrant. Capitalizing on that vibrancy through events, art projects, recreation opportunities and volunteerism also is important to Karlinsey.

“Our major theme of the next two-year budget is ‘Where’s the fun?’” he said.

The total proposed budget for the 2017-18 biennium is $55.9 million. Within that figure, $23.4 million is dedicated to the general fund, $9.4 million will go to the transportation capital fund, $4.7 million will go to surface water management and $4.5 million will go to the park capital fund.

Capital Improvement Program

At the Oct. 24 meeting, the council also unanimously approved the 2017-22 Capital Improvement Program (CIP), which includes funding for various parks, transportation and surface water projects. Nine planned park projects will be funded for a total of $11.2 million, 10 transportation projects will be funded for a total of $61.2 million, and seven surface water projects will be funded for a total of $4.7 million.

For the 2017-18 biennium, $4.5 million will be spent on parks, $12.3 million on transportation and $3.5 million on surface water as part of the CIP.

Funding from the proposed Walkways and Waterways levy on the Nov. 8 ballot affects five of the CIP projects, and Gregory said changes would be made if the levy fails. “We would go back to the drawing board on those projects … and create a new plan, amend the CIP,” Gregory said.

What’s next

The 2017-18 budget will be up for discussion again at the council’s Nov. 7 meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Kenmore City Hall.

The full proposed 2017-18 biennial budget and the CIP can be found online through the city’s finance department at www.kenmore.gov/financeadministration.

Keep an eye on the CPBB blog for further updates. Sign-up for our social media pages so you stay connected with TEAM CPBB!

If you're thinking of jumping into the world of Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting we would certainly like to be part of your efforts! Contact us to schedule a free webinar and identify the best CPBB service option(s) to meet your organization's particular needs.

The CPBB + ELGL Webinar Series - Applied PBB: P3's!

"While politicians easily offer policy prescriptions, they often fail to ask how they will be paid for." - Mark Funkhouser, Publisher of Governing Magazine

Governing recently published a P3 supplement as part of their Guide to Financial Literacy series. This publication is called Putting Citizens First with an Innovative Approach to P3's. In it they state,
"Governments continue to find new ways to leverage private sector money, expertise, innovation and flexibility. This is especially true for states and localities, which in the past 20 years have rapidly expanded the scope, scale and stakes of that leverage. This practice of deeper private sector involvement in public services is broadly known as public-private partnerships, or P3s."

To Share, or Not to Share

But where do you look to find these partnership opportunities? What type of criteria would help you figure out where a partnership could exist?

Among the success stories you can read about from ICMA and Alliance for Innovation case studies, you’ll find out about SAFEbuilt and the way they’ve revolutionized the entire approach to a Building Department through shared services. For some services, there are proven successes that can provide a ready made blue-print for how to implement them in your community.

In our work in Priority Based Budgeting, one of the greatest outcomes of the work is the ability to shed light on where to find opportunities for shared services. What if a program was of the highest priority for your citizens, and you found out you were one of several providers of this service in your community? Perhaps a partnership would be an incredible opportunity to produce efficiency in the provision of that program. On the other hand, what if you found a lower priority program for which there were other service providers? Maybe the best approach there would be to consolidate services or even allow the other service provider to take on the program entirely.

In the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, City Council identified opportunities for partnership using PBB as a policy priority. In Douglas County, Nevada, the Board of County Commissioners did the same. In our story from the City of Fort Collins, CO, about the Rocky Mountain Innosphere (RMI), the City’s share of funding to support RMI scored well in the PBB process – it was a high priority. However, using the filters of the PBB Model, it was clear that this was a program that others could offer and were offering in the form of business support (in other words, the City need not be the only player in providing this service), that the City wasn’t mandated to do, and was unlikely to pay for itself.  

Through the lens of PBB, this points precisely in the direction of a partnership. The role of government, even in a high-priority program, is not always to be the direct service provider; it can be a key partner!

Priority Based Budgeting and Shared Services

Central to PBB is the idea that all local government organizations can determine the role they're suited to serve best within a community, and amongst all potential service providers within a region - identifying the overlap, the potential for partnerships, consolidated services, and spinning off of services between city, county, school district, non-profit and private sector organizations. The end goal is nothing short of the most efficient use of a community's resources as a whole, to achieve the results of a region – it’s "bang for the buck" for the provision of public services.

 

In Priority Based Budgeting we’re attempting to provide a comprehensive review of the entire organization, identifying every program offered, identifying the costs of every program offered, evaluating the relevance of every program offered on the basis of the community's priorities, and ultimately guiding elected and appointed officials to the policy questions they can answer with the information gained from the Priority Based Budgeting process, such as:

•       What is the local government uniquely qualified to provide, offering the maximum benefit to citizens for the tax dollars they pay?

•       What programs are most appropriate to fund by establishing or increasing user-fees?

•       What programs are most appropriate for establishing partnerships with other community service providers?

•       What services might the local government consider "getting out of the business" of providing?

•       Where are there apparent overlaps and redundancies in a community because several entities are providing similar services?

•       Where is the local government potentially competing against private businesses within its own community? 

To ultimately see a new way of determining which services our local government is best suited to provide—services that have the greatest impact for the resources within the community’s means.

Untapped Potential

According to the State Department, approximately 1.5 million non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) operate in the United States. There are 87,453 units of local government as recognized by the US Census. Local government no longer needs to be everything to everybody. We heard Bill Clinton give a speech recently where he said the single thing he’d love to “do-over” from his Presidency would be to understand all of the NGO’s and non-profits out there, what they’re doing, and how government could partner better. It’s more efficient, there’s less duplication, and we must find the best providers of services who have the greatest chance of achieving great outcomes. We feel the same thing about local government. Some of the best things taking place in a community are coming about from partnerships, where local government is the leader, the facilitator and often times a key partner, but not always necessarily the only possible service provider.

Public Private Partnerships (or P3’s) are becoming an incredibly exciting opportunity area for the future of local government and our communities. Why? Because through partnerships, local governments are able to tap into additional resources, bringing other service providers into the same mission we strive to achieve, almost as if adding new staff for no new money (and often times, while reducing costs). It’s as if government has increased it’s size (through the collaborations created in such partnerships), but it will not have increased in size. Instead it will have leveraged these partners to increase the overall impact! It’s a truly remarkable solution.

The good news is that government “Doesn’t Have To” be in the same businesses it has been in throughout history, providing these same services – there are many many other service providers who are working on the same societal objectives of safer communities, healthier people, a more thriving economy, etc. Government must realize who these players are, and leverage the force of their efforts – thereby reducing redundancies within community, maximizing key partnerships with these services providers, and ultimately optimizing the resources that a community has from all of it’s service providers.


The trick to the P3 solution, is three-fold:

1.)  What: what services make for ideal P3’s in your community? Not every community is the same, and therefore we need a methodology to discover what services are ripe with opportunity for partnership.
2.)  Who: who are the other potential partners in your community, with whom you can share services, regionalize shared services and potentially consolidate services with?
3.)  How: finally, how do we begin to envision a path to execution and implementation of a P3 opportunity?

This webinar series will serve to provide you with this 3-fold solution, via the methodology of Priority Based Budgeting, and the tools that are leading today’s PBB communities to discover P3 opportunities, and bring them to life.

The #P3 Webinar Series

The intent of this webinar series is to provide concepts and opportunities revolving around partnerships, guide local government leaders to start to understand where these opportunities exist, and highlight both Public-Private-Partnerships as well as Public-Public-Partnerships.

The three individual webinars include:
I. Intro: November 15, 2016 from Noon to 1 PM EST
What are partnerships and how PBB leads to unveiling opportunities around partnerships

II. Public/Private Partnerships: December 13, 2016 from Noon to 1 PM EST
CPBB to co-present with leading public-private local government provider Safebuilt 

III. Public/Public Partnerships: Date in January 2017 TBD
CPBB to co-present with City of Englewood City Manager toprovide a case study of how City of Englewood merged their Fire Department with a neighboring jurisdiction

Register today!

Keep an eye on the CPBB blog for further updates. Sign-up for our social media pages so you stay connected with TEAM CPBB!

If you're thinking of jumping into the world of Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting we would certainly like to be part of your efforts! Contact us to schedule a free webinar and identify the best CPBB service option(s) to meet your organization's particular needs.