The 2013 "Summit of Leading Practices" is the ONLY conference where ICMA's Leading Practices for Local Government Management (and more) come together under one roof.
While "leading Practices" are invaluable (and AWESOME!), so are our
amazing partners, sponsors and exhibitors who are instrumental in making
this THE local government event of the year.
Peter Diamandis’
book “Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think” promotes an idea that is
imperative for our time. The idea is that scarcity is contextual – it may be
true that certain resources are scarce, or it may be that they’re simply
inaccessible.
Says Diamandis, “imagine a giant orange tree packed with
fruit. If I pluck all the oranges from the lower branches, I am effectively out
of accessible fruit. From my limited perspective, oranges are now scarce. But
once someone invents a piece of technology called a ladder, I’ve suddenly got
new reach. Problem solved. Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It
can make the once scarce the now abundant.”
Priority Based Budgeting as a
Resource-Liberating Mechanism
People and money
are among the resources that we feel are scarce these days in local government.
We don't have enough money to maintain our services. We don't have enough
people to do the work. We seek tax increases because inherently we feel we need
more and more to do the job.
But what if we
actually had all the resources we ever needed? What if our scarcity problem was
also contextual? What if we found out we had more resources than we need to
build hugely successful communities? Is it possible that our people and our
money (human and financial resources) are literally tied up, locked into providing
services that may be of lesser priority, and/or services that other service
providers (public and private) are willing and able to provide?
Through the lens of
Priority Based Budgeting, communities are finding ways to free those resources
and re-allocate them to new and extremely important programs and initiatives. They’re
also finding the other community resources able to share in the pursuit of
achieving Results.
Douglas County, Nevada – Creating Funding
for New Transportation Infrastructure
There is no
shortage of studies documenting the significant backlog in improvements
necessary to bring the nation’s transportation infrastructure to where it needs
to be. The dramatic failure of Washington’s I-5 bridge was a devastating
reminder of the vulnerability we all face with this problem.
So how is it that a
County in one of the most severely punished economies in the U.S. (in the State
of Nevada) is able to find the resources to fund over $1 Million in new roads?
“For the
past decade, the County has spent approximately $300,000 per year on
preventative road maintenance, but with the Board’s actions to shift funds from
lower priority services next fiscal year the County will now spend
approximately $1.5 million on preventative road maintenance. Another $3-4
million per year is needed to maintain County roads at their current condition.
After five years of
budget imbalances, position eliminations and reductions in services, Douglas
County has set itself on course to invest taxpayer resources in high priority
services that add value to residents.”
Douglas County, Nevada has reallocated resources to increase transportation funding my
millions of dollars – all local dollars at play!
Fort Collins,
Colorado – A Community Partner, Tackling Job Growth in the Region
Like so many other
cities in the nation, Fort Collins is determined to improve the health of their
local economy. So how is it that the City is making some of their most stunning
progress in job creation, by stepping back their need for control and ownership
of services directed toward this end, and stepping up their role as a partner
among many?
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City of Fort Collins, Colorado has partnered in a start-up incubator
project to launch small businesses and super-charge the local economy. The Rocky Mountain Innosphere (RMI) started in 1998,
(as a recent
article in the Coloradoan pointed out) “connecting startup companies with
advisers.”
“RMI
provides entrepreneurial startup companies with resources such as assistance
with raising capital, access and connections with academic and government
institutions, a network of advisors and mentors including several who are in
residence, discounted professional service providers and educational and
networking opportunities for realizing business success.”
Kevin
Duggan from the Coloardoan newspaper writes, “the Innosphere works with 30
to 35 client companies a year, providing education, mentoring from business
executives and networking. It connects companies with potential investors and
the capital they need to grow.”
Most
interestingly, RMI is not a city program, although the cities of Fort Collins
and Loveland are contributors to the partnership. “The incubator is a private
nonprofit corporation. Its operations are funded through private donations and
annual contributions from the state government, Colorado State University,
local banks, Loveland and the City of Fort Collins.”
If
anything, RMI is the holy grail of the “shared service model” where local government is one of many providers, but
not the sole owner.
City of Boulder, Colorado – Investing in
Energy (with no new money to invest)
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City of Boulder, Colorado has focused resource reallocation opportunities
to fund high-priority energy initiatives in the City. Applying PBB to "new
programs" - Boulder was the first to apply PBB to the consideration of
programs that didn't exist before; running them through the PBB model to see
what Quartile they might be in, if they were initiated. It's a tremendous
application. And as demonstrated in this year's budget, new investment, new
resources are allocated to high priority programs planning the City's
"energy future."
Where
did they get the money to start these new programs - "nearly 10%
reductions were applied to low-quartile, low-relevance investment areas.”
Boulder
has also compiled a multi-year perspective on their application of PBB, to
demonstrate how they've reduced and divested themselves of lower priority
programs over the years, and reinvested in new or expanded higher priority
programs - it's outstanding!
In the Information
Age, it's the flood of information and data that has an unintended consequence
of creating complexity and confusion. Governments are so large, and so complex
(there are so many people doing so many different things, and we spend so much
money on things that we don't have the capacity to understand all at once),
that we have the potential to overlook the abundance of resources truly at our
disposal.
We have
non-profits, NGO's, public and private sector resources that are tackling the
same problems and the same issues that we in local government feel we need our
own services to tackle – those other entities are brand new resources that
we've perhaps never considered. Communities implementing PBB are identifying
those resources!
Quoting Diamandis (again), “imagine a giant orange tree packed with
fruit. If I pluck all the oranges from the lower branches, I am effectively out
of accessible fruit. From my limited perspective, oranges are now scarce. But
once someone invents a piece of technology called a ladder, I’ve suddenly got
new reach. Problem solved. Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It
can make the once scarce the now abundant.”
Our special thanks
to Douglas County, Nevada, the City of Fort Collins, Colorado and the City of
Boulder, Colorado for inspiring this article.
To learn more about Local Government Innovation and Priority Based Budgeting from CPBB and the nation's leading local government practitioners, be sure to attend the upcoming...
Center for Priority Based Budgeting 2013 Annual Conference
The 2013 "Summit of Leading Practices"is theONLY conference where ICMA's Leading Practices for Local Government Management come together under one roof.
The 2013 CPBB "Summit of Leading Practices" Annual Conference is strongly supported by
Last week, CPBB enjoyed
the opportunity of a lifetime, “hanging out” (in the Google+ sense) with Peter
Diamandis, author of "Abundance:
The Future is Better Than You Think," CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation,
and co-founder of Singularity University. Peter orchestrated the session in
order to talk more about his book and it’s implications.
On it’s surface, Abundance is a documentary of sorts,
uncovering radical forces at play in the world from technophilanthropy to the
“DIY Innovator” and social entrepreneurs working to solve global challenges. On
a deeper level, Abundance is about seeing the world differently – it’s a
mindset, and a tool for opening up possibilities.
The Lesson of
Aluminum
Peter’s signature story is about aluminum – yep, tin foil!
At one point in our world history, aluminum was more precious than gold or
silver. Pliny the Elder had a man decapitated simply for possessing it.
Napolean III would only bring out the aluminum serving utensils for his most
worthy guests (saving gold and silver for those who didn’t rate as highly). And
it wasn’t until the discovery of electrolysis (the process of liberating
aluminum from it’s natural state, so that we can use it as metal), that this
resource that makes up 8.3 percent of the earth’s crust would turn into the
cheap, useful but unremarkable, throw-away product it is today.
Scarcity, says Diamandis, is just as much a way of seeing
the world, as is abundance. Until electrolysis, aluminum was a scarce resource,
only because we couldn’t get to it. In terms of our current global challenges
of energy scarcity, the sun bathes the earth in 5,000 times the solar energy
than we use in a year. Is water scarce? Maybe not, when we see the blue planet
for what it is – 70 percent water, with 97.3 percent of that water made
“scarce” by salt. Scarcity is a reality, only until a new break-through, or
technology comes along to turn scarcity into abundance.
The question then becomes this: if what we view as scarce
today, could actually be in abundance if we had the right tools to liberate the
resources we so desperately seek, how much better off could we make our
communities?
From Scarcity to
Abundance: The Future is Better than We Think
Over the course of series of blog posts, we at the Center for Priority Based Budgeting are
going to explore Abundance and it’s lessons. And we are going to bring to light
the power of Priority Based Budgeting as a tool for liberating the resources we
so desperately seek to achieve results and improve our communities. PBB is
nothing short of a technology to unearth resources seemingly as inaccessible
as aluminum appears in it’s claylike bauxite state in nature, seemingly as
inaccessible as drinking water is from the oceans of a planet drenched in
salt-water, seemingly as inaccessible as energy resources in a world of solar
abundance.
In the first blog post, we’re going to explore Diamandis’
concept of resource re-allocation, the power of shared services, and the idea
that local government can be a partner in the pursuit of results in their
communities but need not be the sole service provider. We’ll explore the
stunning story of the City
of Fort Collins, Colorado’s role as one partner among many in successful
business incubator, tackling the challenges of economic development. And we’ll
bring to light the stories of companies like SAFEbuilt
who are opening up immense possibilities for local governments to drive down
the costs for services while achieving better results with their services, and
still looking after the well-being of their employees.
In the second blog post, we’ll explore Diamandis’
realization of the power of incentives, incentive competitions as a force, and
the idea that if incentives are placed in such a way, local governments can
unleash creativity and innovation while simultaneously driving significant
efficiency throughout their organizations in the use of resources. We’ll
explore the story of internal service funds in Jefferson County, Colorado and
how the structuring of a controlled “free market” environment unearthed
immediate and lasting efficiency opportunities as departments were given the
incentive to look for alternative ways to meet their needs.
In the third blog post, we’ll conclude with Diamandis’ idea
of the DIY Innovator and Social
Entrepreneurs and how objectives that were once
the sole domain and purview of huge corporations and federal and state level
governments are now attainable by groups with far less resources – including
local businesses and small local governments. We’ll look at initiatives like Code for America and Open Town Hall and how start-ups and
innovators are tackling huge problems of data and civic engagement, and what
the future of government may look like!
To paraphrase Peter Diamandis, “when seen through the lens
of [Priority Based Budgeting] technology, few resources are truly scarce;
they’re mainly inaccessible.” We’re excited to bring you these stories.
Furthermore, come to D.C. July 9th and 10th
for the Summit of Leading Practices and hear these stories first-hand from the
leaders of these local governments themselves. As Diamandis believes, and we do
too, the Future is indeed better than we think!
To learn more about Local Government Innovation and Priority Based Budgeting from CPBB and the nation's leading local government practitioners, be sure to attend the upcoming...
Center for Priority Based Budgeting 2013 Annual Conference
The 2013 "Summit of Leading Practices"is theONLY conference where ICMA's Leading Practices for Local Government Management come together under one roof.
The 2013 CPBB "Summit of Leading Practices" Annual Conference is strongly supported by
Terrinoni will be part of a “User Group Experience” Panel Discussion with representatives from communities as diverse
as Douglas County, NV, Wheat Ridge, CO, Cincinnati, OH, Walnut Creek, CA, Lakeland,
FL and Tualatin, OR, to present their thoughts and experiences on Fiscal Health
and Priority Based Budgeting from their actual experiences as local government
experts.
“You work with someone every day and people
sometimes don’t realize how well thought of they are with other professionals who
know them,’’ County Board Chairman Bob Walberg said. “We are very proud to have
Ken attend this educational event as a presenter.”
Previously, he was a presenter at the United
Counties Council of Illinois’ educational events in July 2012 and January 2013.
“This shows how Ken is well respected in his
professional circles to be asked to be part of a program like this event,” Chairman
Walberg said.
In material about the conference, Boone County
was referred to as a “stunning illustration of how the principals of Fiscal Health can be used to strengthen a community’s bond rating – a ‘Holy Grail’ of
sorts, in terms of using the principles in the most effective way possible.”
Bob O’Neill wrote a story for Governing
Magazine, entitled “Excelling in Times of Fiscal Distress,” which commended
Boone County and the quality of its fiscal health. “Most of us can articulate the early-warning
signs that preceded the current economic downturn: Global forces that
dramatically changed the local, state and federal playing fields,” he wrote. “Skyrocketing fuel costs. A failing housing
market … property tax limitations. Yet, many of us failed to correctly
interpret these early-warning in relation to their impact on our government
organizations.”
We are so pleased to have Ken Terrinoni join the deeply talented, well respected and wildly enthusiastic group of speakers and local government experts at the 2013 CPBB Annual Conference.
To learn more about Fiscal Health and Priority Based Budgeting from CPBB and the nation's leading local government practitioners, be sure to attend the upcoming...
Center for Priority Based Budgeting 2013 Annual Conference
The 2013 "Summit of Leading Practices"is theONLY conference where ICMA's Leading Practices for Local Government Management come together under one roof.
The 2013 CPBB "Summit of Leading Practices" Annual Conference is strongly supported by
Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian are pleased to share with you that the Center for Priority Based Budgeting officially opened its office on September 1, 2010, with its main objective being to “lead communities to Fiscal Health and Wellness.”
As most of you know, it was our desire from the very beginning of our partnership to create a not-for-profit environment that could support and sustain our work in not only providing advisory services to local governments across the country but also to find ways to continue our research efforts to better understand the fiscal conditions that are impacting local governments from coast to coast. Utilizing a business development technique found in the private sector, the Center was being “incubated” by another successful not-for-profit organization that also serves local governments. Graduating from the incubator in 2013, CPBB is now working with over 60 organizations who have implemented or are currently implementing the processes and tools of Fiscal Health and Priority Based Budgeting.
As before, we are striving to bring the principles of Fiscal Health and Wellness to all communities by teaching, coaching and guiding them in the development and implementation of our unique, creative and proven tools and techniques. We continue to improve upon our “Fiscal Health Diagnostic Tool”, which provides a quick assessment of any organization’s fiscal health status. We also continue to develop our “Resource Allocation Tool” which provides not only a mechanism to set target budgets based on our Priority Based Budgeting approach, but also serves as a way to depict how well any organization is aligning its resources with the programs and services that the community values. Our work has expanded to now include some interesting and successful citizen engagement opportunities with the communities we are partnering with in this work.
We have included our contact information below and hope that we can continue to reach out to those of you we have worked with in the past to further our research efforts as we continually strive to enhance the Priority Based Budgeting process as well as with the concepts of Fiscal Health and Wellness. We also hope to continue the conversation with those of you who have been following our work and share with you the stories of accomplishment and success from the organizations that have implemented Priority Based Budgeting. Please drop us a line anytime – we’re always glad to hear from you. In the meantime, please update your contact information and when you have the chance, check out our blog site to find out what we’ve been doing since our last conversation with you.
- September, 2007: Colorado 10-County Budget Consortium Annual Conference, Breckenridge, CO - "Rx for Fiscal Health - Alignment with Priorities"
- June, 2008: GFOA (Government Finance Officers Association) Annual Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, FL - "Planning for Financial Sustainability"
- July, 2008: National Association of Counties Annual Conference, Kansas City, MO -"Achieving Sustainable Fiscal Health & Wellness"
- August, 2008: ICMA Audio Conference, Golden, CO - "Achieving Fiscal Health: Strategies for Dealing with Fiscal Distress in Today's Economic Downturn"
- August, 2008: Alliance for Innovations Workshop, San Mateo County, CA - "Budgeting for Priorities - Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness"
- September, 2008: GFOA Training Workshop, Sacramento, CA - "Fiscal First Aid: Achieving Financial Sustainability"
- September, 2008: Kansas GFOA Fall Conference, Overland Park, KS - "Planning for a Sustainable Financial Future"
- September, 2008: Colorado 10-County Budget Consortium Annual Conference, Beaver Creek, CO - "Budgeting for Priorities - Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness" - October, 2008: GFOA Training Workshop, Providence RI - "Best Practices in Budgeting"
- October, 2008: Alliance for Innovations Workshop, Charlottesville, VA - "Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness - Budgeting for Priorities"
- December, 2008: ICMA Audio Conference, Golden, CO -"Fiscal Distress: How to Diagnose the Cause and Identify the Right Solutions"
- January, 2009: GFOA Training Workshop, Newport Beach, CA - "Advanced Tools for Finance Officers: Long Term Financial Planning"
- April, 2009: ICMA Workshop, Belton, TX - "Rightsizing to Realities: Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- April, 2009: GFOA Training Workshop, Columbus, OH - "Best Practices in Budgeting"
- May, 2009: ICMA Workshop, Monterey, CA - "Rightsizing to Realities: Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- May, 2009: ICMA Audio Conference, Washington, DC - "The Promise of Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- June, 2009: North Carolina Association of CPA's Local Government Conference, Greensboro, NC - "The Promise of Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- June, 2009: North Carolina Assoc of CPA's Local Government Conference, New Bern, NC - "The Promise of Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- June, 2009: GFOA Pre-Conference Workshop, Seattle, WA - "Fiscal First Aid: Budgeting Tactics for Bad Economic Times"
- June, 2009: GFOA Annual Conference, Seattle, WA - "The What's, Why's and How's Of Your Government's Fiscal Condition"
- July, 2009: IL-ICMA/IL GFOA Workshop, Naperville, IL - "Rightsizing to Realities: Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- July, 2009: GFOA Training Workshop, Denver, CO -"Fiscal First Aid: Achieving Financial Sustainability"
- September, 2009: ICMA Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec - "Managing Your Budget in Turbulent Times: An In-Dept Review of Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- February, 2010: ICMA Audio Conference – “Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness in the NEW NORMAL”
- February, 2010: Virginia Local Government Association (VLGMA) / University of Virginia / Alliance for Innovation, VLGMA Conference, Charlottesville, VA – “The Principles of Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)”
- April, 2010: Alliance for Innovation Audio Conference – “The Nuts and Bolts of Implementing Fiscal Health & Wellness”
- April, 2010: Presentation to Boulder Tomorrow – “Achieving R.O.I. in Government: How the City of Boulder is Using Priority Based Budgeting to Demonstrate Return on Taxpayer Dollars”
- May, 2010: ICMA Webinar – “Budgeting in the New Normal: Managing Your Budget in Turbulent Times”
- June, 2010: North Carolina Association of CPA's Local Government Conference, Greensboro, NC - "The Promise of Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- June, 2010: North Carolina Assoc of CPA's Local Government Conference, New Bern, NC - "The Promise of Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
- August, 2010: Virginia Beach, Virginia Workshop – “Implementing Fiscal Health & Wellness”
- October, 2010: GFOA Audio Conference – “GFOA Best Budgeting Practices – Implementing Fiscal Health & Wellness to Achieve Financial Resiliency”
- November, 2010: ICMA Annual Conference, San Jose, CA – “Surviving and Thriving in the New Normal: How Organizations Implementing Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization) Are Surviving These Times”
- January, 2011: GFOA Training Workshop, San Diego, CA – “GFOA Best Budgeting Practices – Implementing Fiscal Health & Wellness to Achieve Long-Term Financial Health and Resiliency”
- January, 2011: GFOA Training Workshop, San Diego, CA – “Tools of Financial Resiliency: Working with Elected Officials; Analyzing Fiscal Health; Engaging Citizens in the Budgeting Process; Implementing Internal Service Funds”
(UPCOMING) March, 2011: ICMA Webinar – “Getting Ready for the Budgeting Process: How to Use Priority Based Budgeting”
(UPCOMING) April, 2011: IL-ICMA/WI-ICMA/Alliance for Innovations Workshop, - “Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)"
(UPCOMING) April, 2011: ICMA Webinar – “Getting Ready for the Budgeting Process: Using the Fiscal Health Model to Diagnose and Treat the Causes of Fiscal Distress”
(UPCOMIONG) December, 2011: Colorado Government Finance Officer’s Association (CGFOA) Winter Conference – “Achieving Fiscal Health & Wellness (Prioritization)”
