"Priority
based budgeting is a process and a set of tools that can really help
communities and elected officials change the way they talk about making
financial decisions and how they achieve the results that the community
is really looking for."
As we've recently reported, City staff and elected officials have made great strides in identifying the results the community wishes to achieve and linking city services to those results. The evolution of Longmont's PBB focused budgeting process continues.
Today, the Longmont Times-Call reported on how priority based budgeting is transforming the City's approach to evaluating city services. In the article, Longmont staff using budget software to rank city services, staff writer Karen Antonacci documents the power of CPBB's priority based budgeting software. In particular, this innovative budgeting software has allowed Council a more transparent way to establish and evaluate the budget in relation to the ranking of city services.
Longmont staff using budget software to rank city services
In setting budget priorities
for 2016, the city of Longmont is going to be leaning more on a tool
that ranks city services in a detailed, data-driven way. The budgeting software, created by the Center for Priority Based Budgeting, was used in June in the
budget process for 2015, but now the
city will use it more this year for the 2016 budgeting process and work
toward getting the data online in the coming months. The software ranks each of the 1,244 city services (everything from
Main Street banners to the hazardous materials response) into four
quartiles, with the fourth quartile being most important to the city and
the first being the least important. To group the programs into those quartiles, the software evaluates
them on four attributes: how required the city is to provide a program,
the reliance on a program, the cost and how much of the community is
served by a program. Golden presented Tuesday about the first attribute - what level of
mandate the city has to provide a service. The Department of Public
Safety had the most services that are required by a federal, state or
county mandate while the Community Services department has the most
services that are not required in writing and aren't published anywhere
as best practices. City Manager Harold Dominguez said one use for the software would be
to evaluate one-time funding requests for 2016's budget. He used
community solar gardens as an example, which a Fort Collins resident
asked the council to consider during Tuesday's public invited to be
heard portion. "If the council wanted to consider this, we could put it into this
formula and it would show us how it was ranked with all the pieces and
we would see it fall into one of these categories." Dominguez said. City Council members expressed gratitude to Golden for the detailed data on the 1,244 city programs. "I'm going to read this over pancakes in the morning for the next
couple of weeks," Mayor Pro Tem Brian Bagley said, holding up the
57-page printout of the rankings.
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“This is a way to really get to know your municipality as to where your dollars are going.” Town Administrator Thomas Guerino
Looking for a
better way to analyze and develop Bourne’s annual budget, town
administrator Thomas M. Guerino has introduced town leaders to a
different approach to the budgeting process.
Mr. Guerino said
that the new process, known as priority based budgeting, is a way of
“drilling deeper” to determine where budget cuts would be most
effective. He said the system would not be a part of this year’s budget
planning process, but he would like to incorporate it in the near
future.
“If we can implement this over
the next two to three years, it will become a matter of course on how we
do business, and I think you’ll see that we are able to really hone
down on expenditures,” he said.
Mr. Guerino said he first became
aware of priority based budgeting when he attended a town managers
conference in Seattle, Washington, last year. Members of the Bourne
Board of Selectmen, Bourne Finance Committee and the Bourne School
Committee were introduced to the new budgeting approach Tuesday night,
January 13, during the first part of a two-night workshop at Bourne
Middle School.
The workshop was taught by
Christopher E. Fabian, co-founder of the Lakewood, Colorado-based Center for Priority Based Budgeting. Mr. Fabian and his partner, John M.
Johnson, founded the organization back in 2010.
Mr. Fabian explained that there
is a five-step process to priority based budgeting that begins with the
simple question: Why is a given organization, in this case the Town of
Bourne, in business? In essence, what would be the result of the town
not being in business? Subsequent questions include how to determine if
the town is achieving its desired results; what to do to achieve those
results and how much does it cost; and which programs and services have
the greatest impact on the results the town is trying to achieve?
The questions are applied to each
department and each program or service provided by that department. A
score is then applied to that offering. After the department does it own
self-review, programs go through a peer review process that results in a
final composite score. With all the programs scored, a four-line bar
graph is then created which displays the number of programs having the
highest impact on the town’s desired results down to those having the
lowest impact. Decisions can then be made as to which programs are
crucial and which may have become obsolete.
Mr. Fabian said that priority
based budgeting is a more effective alternative to measures towns often
resort to when crafting a budget, including implementing an
across-the-board cut. Admittedly, the advantage to an across-the-board
cut is that no one department feels more pain than another. It is also
easier than attempting to justify why one department or program should
get more money than another, he said.
However, an across-the-board cut
on a municipal level would be the same as a homeowner applying a similar
cut to their household expenses. The example he drew would be cutting
the amount paid to a monthly mortgage bill by the same amount as the
Netflix bill. That, he suggested, is not something the average homeowner
would do.
"If we would never do it in our own house, why do we do it in our organizations?” he said.
The idea behind priority based
budgeting is to determine which services provided by the town are
“mortgage” expenses versus “Netflix.”
“What we’re trying to do with
priority based budgeting is understand your best investments, understand
the Netflix, where you can perhaps rechannel some of the resources to
something that’s getting better results,” he said.
Mr. Fabian said the process does
allow for identifying programs or services that are mandated by either
the federal or state government, or the town itself. In those cases, if
the mandated program falls within the category of lowest impact, the
suggestion would be to seek an outside, independent source of funding,
he said.
He also noted that priority based
budgeting can reveal misperceptions that all the programs offered by a
single department, such as police and fire, are of highest priority. He
mentioned programs in both Boulder, Colorado, and Chandler, Arizona,
that the police chiefs in each city felt were not achieving the desired
results. Funding for each was rerouted to other programs, he said.
Mr. Guerino said he does not know
the cost of the program yet, but “we’re not talking huge money.”
Whatever the cost is, however, it will be shared by all the town’s
departments. He admitted that it is a very involved process, and that it
would take anywhere from three to five years before it is up and
running fully. During the first several years, it would be a continual
process of evaluation. After that, department heads would examine
programs on more of a quarterly basis to see how services are matching
up with expectations and needs, he said.
“This is a way to really get to know your municipality as to where your dollars are going,” he said.
This article was originally published in CapeNews.net
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Barrett and Greene asked several questions to approximately 200 of the nations top local government leadership. These include, "When you think of the future financial stability of your government,
what worries you the most?” And question two asked, “What routes to the
future financial stability of your government are you most optimistic
about?”
Barrett and Greene go on to say, "We got 127 responses. While we aren’t pretending that this was any kind
of scientific survey, the results seemed more than sensible and worth
sharing. To begin, the biggest worry in the crowd pertained to revenues.
Even though about half the states have seen their revenues return to
pre-recessionary levels, the number is far smaller among municipalities.
In fact, 1 in 4 who sent us their responses indicated that oncoming
revenue problems and shortfalls are significant sources of concern to
them.
As you would expect, a fair number of attendees are placing their faith
in a steady return of the economy to set things right again and put
revenues neatly in line with expenditures. But the theory of rising
tides lifting all boats wasn’t enough to keep the audience from coming
up with a schooner full of concerns.
Other major elements mentioned by our respondents regarding revenue
instability included decreasing state and federal funding, overreliance
on property taxes given the potential of the housing market to crash
again, and increasing demands for new programs.
But that’s just the beginning of the story. Many attendees were
concerned about escalating employee costs, largely from pensions and
other post-employment benefits. A good number of respondents told us
that they were worried about pressing infrastructure needs and costs --
more pointed us in that direction than those who brought up health
costs, the next most commonly mentioned item. Finally, though they
described the phenomenon in a variety of ways, many respondents were
concerned about rising citizen expectations in their cities for
additional services now that the recession is allegedly over.
Inasmuch as we’ve spent the majority of our adult lives researching
and reporting about state and local management, we found it particularly
intriguing to note that the causes for optimism cited by the group
largely fell into the area of managerial changes. More than 1 in 5
suggested that they were hanging their hopes on a variety of ways to
prioritize services, control spending and inaugurate efficiency
improvements. Tom McCarty, county administrator of Eau Claire County,
Wis., was one of a number of people who recommended a focus on
results-based performance measures to decide priorities. Others
suggested that shared services and local government consortiums “will,”
in the words of Caitlin Humrickhouse, a consultant at Baker Tilly
Virchow Krause LLP, “provide a new operating environment that can help
relieve some fiscal pressures.”
While we at the Center for Priority Based Budgeting certainly understand why so many local government managers remain sleep deprived (the challenges facing today's local governments are massive), what's so interesting about Barrett and Greene's findings is the revelation that the nightmare of the great recession still plagues so many of us. We have not yet awakened to the possibility that our crisis is not a fiscal crisis, but instead a crisis in the way we frame and define the challenges before our communities - the way we redefine the very role of local government. This is what keeps us at the Center for Priority Based Budgeting awake all night - working to solve this problem so that organizations like the nearly eighty who have implemented Priority Based Budgeting, their elected officials leadership, staff and citizens can rest a little easier.
These city and county leaders are able to rest because of the tools they use to utilize economic forecasting, economic scenario building and budget prioritization. Otherwise known as Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting.
The Crisis is Not Fiscal
What assumptions do we hold so firmly and that so calcify our
thinking to convince us that changing fiscal conditions represent our
crisis? Would higher revenues and lower expenses allow us to operate
crisis free? Or does the true crisis exist when, despite our fiscal
realities, we don’t focus on those priorities and objectives that ensure
the success of our communities?"
Perhaps the biggest concern we face is not a fiscal crisis. Fiscal
trends and conditions are by and large out of our control and simply
represent a reality with which we need to cope. The real crisis on our
hands is whether our organizations have the capabilities to address
current fiscal realities and still meet the objectives of government and
the expectations of our constituents.
The budget book, the certified annual financial report (CAFR), and
reports out of the financial system are great tools for finance
professionals, but they prove insufficient to clearly and simply answer
the question: is the organization in "good shape" or is there trouble on
the horizon? Furthermore, in a world of rapidly changing economic variables, the
answer to that question today might not be the answer to that question
tomorrow.
First and foremost, local governments must be clear and transparent about what truly is their picture of fiscal health. Communicating that picture
simply and clearly without volumes of numbers, spreadsheets, tables, and
an endless series of charts is frankly a challenge that has plagued
financial managers for years. If local governments are going to be able
to demonstrate financial reality internally to elected officials and
staff, and externally to residents, they have to find better ways to
make fiscal situations understandable and transparent to everyone.
The key breakthrough in this area has been "data visualization" which
allows for the easiest way of creating a common view, a common
perspective that is simple and that everybody can agree on. Part of the
reason that financial problems can be obscured or hidden is because many
times decisions makers have no idea how to understand finances to begin
with.
Data Visualization allows us to create a common view of the financial
situation that is simple to understand and interpret, describes the
clearly defined variables that can impact the financial situation,
allows for "live" and "real-time" changes in these variables, and offers
the ability for "dynamic" modeling of "what-if" scenarios - this is how
transparency is created, and this is the essential first component of
the paradigm shift required.
CPBB "Fiscal Health" Espresso Blast
Innovative and proactive communities are implementing much more strategic and proactive budgeting methods
The second component of the paradigm shift is changing the way that
resource allocation discussions take place. Financial problems are also
effectively hidden and obscured because the budget process allows for
it. Line item budgeting, incremental budgeting, zero-based budgeting
were each attempts to better understand "how" money is spent, but these
methods fail to address a more fundamental question: "why" money is
spent.
The question of whether or
not public dollars are being used effectively is not answerable with the
tools currently available to elected officials, decision makers, staff
and citizens.
Priority Based Budgeting provides 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 is the community truly mandated to provide? What does it cost to fulfill those mandates?
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?
Only the most innovative public entities have made strides in changing their structural approach to long-term fiscal health.
And with the economy showing some signs of improvement, many will
continue to operate as if to preserve the status quo and vainly wish for
increased revenue. This approach represents a philosophy of wishful
thinking that will only lead to failure.
The "New Wave" represents efficiency and innovation in this Era
of Local Government. The new wave represents a golden opportunity for
local government communities. Finding creative, clear, and transparent
ways to demonstrate what the next 5 to 10 years might look like is a
must if local government professionals are going to address fiscal
concerns.
All too often, local governments are unable to make
sound, timely decisions regarding investing in new resources, starting
new programs, or initiating major capital projects because elected
officials, local government managers, and staff members are paralyzed by
the uncertainty of whether they actually have enough money to
appropriate for these purposes.
Local government communities must consider a completely different perspective.
In order to achieve success and accept the challenges that are ahead, we
must see more clearly how to manage, use, and optimize resources in a
much different way than has been done in the past. This new environment
demands a new (economic) vision of the future.
Keep an eye on the CPBB blog for further updates. Sign-up for our social media pages so you stay connected with TEAM CPBB!
The City of Asheville, North Carolina became the fifth Priority Based Budgeting community in the State last month. What is remarkable about Asheville's PBB process is that the City's elected officials had established a starting place for the City's "Results" by way of an extensive strategic planning effort they'd completed, focusing primarily on the role of local government in their community. This Strategic Operating Plan ("SOP") provides a solid foundation for the PBB process to build upon.
On November
18, 2014, the City of Asheville, NC kicked off their Priority Based Budgeting process with a day-long workshop led by Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian from the Center for Priority Based Budgeting in Colorado. Jon and Chris presented City staff
with an overview and history of PBB and led staff through a brainstorming
exercise to define the City of Asheville’s Community and Governance Results.
Jon and Chris ended the day with a session on defining programs and services
(Program Inventory), which is the next step in the PBB implementation process.
City staff are currently working through creating Program
Inventories for their departments. Departmental Program Inventories are due to
the Budget Office by Wednesday December 17, 2014. Work on PBB implementation
will continue into the spring of 2015, and Finance staff will work with Jon and
Chris to define a timeline for the next steps in the process. So stay tuned for
further updates!
Below are
links to materials presented at the November 18 Priority Based Budgeting
workshop:
Douglas County, Nevada has been one of the most successful implementers, and now practitioners, of Priority Based Budgeting. In fact, they were the first county in the nation to implement Priority Based Budgeting. Douglas County has also implemented a game-changing approach to citizen engagement. In 2012, the County embarked on the Priority Based Budgetingprocess with one of the primary objectives being to bring their community into
an ownership position with respect to decision making. What unfolded in their
groundbreaking use of an online tool to engage citizens sets the bar at a whole
new level in participatory budgeting (see story here). Not only that, but the County's bond rating
was affirmed as a result of their work.
Now Douglas County is continuing their pioneering work with priority based budgeting and citizen engagement. The following article was recently published by The Record-Courier.
From The Record-Courier-It’s rare that a county budgeting process
is referred to as pioneering, innovative or award-winning, but Douglas
County’s priority based budgeting has been called all those things.
Key to the process is online input from
county residents, who are being asked to visit a website
through Dec. 19
to share what their priorities are.
“Everyone’s voice matters,” said Christine
Vuletich, finance director and assistant county manager. “We want to
hear what is most important to our citizens in terms of the services we
provide as a county,”
On the website, participants divide $500
between six major areas, including safe community, economic vitality,
well maintained infrastructure, financial stability, preservation of
natural environment, resources and cultural heritage and managed growth
and development.
Residents may also text “subscribe” to
775-309-4358. The online registration will ask for your name, email
address and physical address. Your registration information is secure
and will not be shared with any outside party. The physical address will
allow responses from geographic areas within the county to be viewed,
but the county and public will not be able to see the names of
individual participants unless the participants chose to display their
names.
Any residents who do not have internet
access may come to the Minden Inn and complete online or obtain access
at the Douglas County Library. In addition, computers will be available
in the lobby at county commissioner meetings.
In 2012, Douglas County became the first
county in the nation to implement priority-based budgeting, which shifts
the annual budget process from across the board allocations to
investing in the community’s highest priorities. Priority-based
budgeting has since been adopted by the International City-County Management Association and the Alliance for Innovationas a leading
practice in local government.
Congratulations again to Douglas County, NV. We at the CPBB couldn't be more proud to partner with such an innovative group of local government professionals! Keep up the excellent work!
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The Center for Priority Based Budgeting (CPBB) is proud to partner with Cobb County in their implementation of priority based budgeting (PBB). CPBB launched PBB with Cobb County in January 2014, with a 2-year process. In the first year, we established Results and defined the Results, completed the Program Inventory and Program Costs – this information was used in the development of Cobb County's 2-year biennial 2015-16 budget. Beginning this month, the County will be embarking on Program Scoring, which will be followed by Peer Review and the ultimate development of the final PBB Model for 2015.
“His county government track record is extensive with numerous contributions and achievements that include the implementation of priority-based budgeting system, operating a county budget with seven Triple A rankings, the completion of the East-West Connector, and most recently, the relocation of the Atlanta Braves stadium to Cobb County,” ACCG officials said in a statement.
Priority Based Budgeting as Centerpiece to Biennial Budget Book
The following excerpts from Cobb County's 2015-2016 biennial budget book reflect the impact PBB has had on the county thus far. Congratulations to Cobb County on their leadership in bringing priority based budgeting to their citizens and County government!
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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)”
