City Council Study Session Summary 2015 01 13

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City Council Study Session Summary January 13, 2015 Page 4 of 5 Update /Discussion — Budget Follow -up During budget process a number of topics were discussed. Should there be a review earlier, does Council want to start the process earlier? Should the budget process be spread over more time? Performance measures were included in the 2015 budget. They were refined throughout the process. What is Council looking for? What is the measure that will tell you if a project is functioning as you would like it to? Council discussed an interest in organizing the budget by programs. Currently budget is organized around line items that are generally larger than the program level and they do not show any revenues associated with the line items. What programs should be identified? There is interest in changing to a biannual budget system. Everyone agreed they would like to start the process earlier. There was a general consensus that a biannual budget makes sense but you can't bind a future Council to it so the Mayor hesitates to spend a lot of time on a future budget. Boulder does a biannual budget and times it to coincide with City Council elections. Westminster did a charter amendment to allow a biannual budget. Westminster likes the biannual budget and approves it on the off - election years. Council member Lipton believes we should spend less time on the math and more time focusing on programs. Council member Dalton said the City Manager and departments do look at programs. The real question is what does everyone on Council envision the programs to be and what do you want to follow? We need to describe what the program areas are. Council member Lipton would like to develop and test a new system, looking at 3 major programs next year, identify 3 subprograms, identify source of funds. Council member Stolzmann suggested Council come to goal the setting session with an idea of what level of detail you want. Finance Director Kevin Watson said since the City is moving to new ERP, it would be helpful for staff to have an idea of what the Council wants before rolling over all of the information to the new software system. Council member Keany said recreation is an area that is easy to look at from a revenue perspective. Need to see the revenue with the fund. Council member Keany suggested Council members Lipton and Stolzmann recommend create some recommendations for the programs.. There was fairly broad interest from Council for a program budget. Staff will prepare and send to Council some updated information. Staff will work with Council members Lipton and Stolzmann and Finance Committee.