Potential changes to the City’s budgeting process
Councilmembers Kathy Plomin, James Brown, and Vice Mayor Dan Wu in the May 28th, 2024 Budget Committee of the Whole Meeting. Source: LexTV
In November 19th’s Budget, Finance, and Economic Development (BFED) Committee, Council Budget Analyst Kelley Farley will presented an overview of potential changes to the City budgeting process.
Councilmembers and Council staff have shared and gathered feedback on what they did and didn’t like about the budgeting process for the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget. This presentation outlines that feedback, and highlights some future changes that Council and the Mayor’s Administration could implement to improve the process.
One of the biggest discussion items is potentially changing the Budget Link structure. After the Mayor’s Proposed Budget is delivered to Council, Councilmembers meet in groups called Links. There are five Links, each made up of three Councilmembers, who deliberate on certain areas of the budget. Links come up with ways to change the budget and bring those recommendations to the full Council for discussion and votes.
The current five Links are: Public Safety and Social Services; Chief Administrative Office & Housing and Community Development; Finance, Economic Development, and Planning; Environmental Quality and Public Works; and General Government and General Services.
Councilmembers, according to the presentation, have expressed interest in reducing the number of Links and having more members serve on Links.
There are no specific recommendations for how to revise the Link structure, but it is recommended that Council and Council staff discuss possible changes in the future.
Other changes mentioned for consideration include:
Bringing back Budget in Brief books.
Budget in Brief books were more succinct booklets containing highlights of the City budget. They were published most years during Mayor Jim Gray’s Administration, but have not been available since Mayor Gorton took office in 2018.
Adding group activities to the Mayor/Council Joint Budget Retreat.
Creating an annual budget process training for Councilmembers and staff.
You can view the presentation slides starting on page 21 of this packet.
District Two Councilmember Shayla Lynch asked if there were any models given for a new budget link structure. Beyond the desire for fewer Links with more members per Link, Farley said no clear alternatives had come up in conversations before the presentation.
District Ten Councilmember Dave Sevigny said that he would like a quarterly process for considering priority items that go unfunded in the approved budget. Council could circle back to these items and reconsider them if new funding became available during the Fiscal Year.
You can watch the meeting archive on LexTV.
Jemi Chew contributed to this piece.
