Rethinking Budgeting Forum

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  • 1.  Budget Workshop to Council

    Posted Jul 18, 2025 10:54 AM

    I wonder how other Cities present their proposed budget to Council. Currently we have  a workshop that starts from 9am-5pm. I have heard other cities have it on a Saturday? We have lunch provided by either catering or going out. We are thinking of changing ours up and I wonder how  others are doing it. 



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    Brittney Hogan
    Finance Director
    City of Port Lavaca
    Port Lavaca TX
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  • 2.  RE: Budget Workshop to Council

    Posted Jul 21, 2025 10:11 AM

    For my current locality, our City Manager does a presentation to mayor & council during a regular meeting which outlines the proposed budget and major details of the budget. There are then public hearings and work sessions during the next couple of months for council to ask questions or for staff to provide additional information. Prior to the proposed budget presentation we will be holding a budget open house for residents & business to learn about the City and provide their priorities for the City. We will also hold a budget retreat for Council to hopefully get the priorities for the year so the proposed budget is in line with those priorities. 

    My prior locality did an all day work session plus one evening where each department presented to council and could could ask additional questions if needed. Again that council would hold public hearings and work sessions to craft what the adopted budget would look like. 

    Being part of both processes, they each have pros & cons. 



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    Gwen Riddle
    Budget Director
    City of Fairfax
    Fairfax VA
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Budget Workshop to Council

    Posted Jul 21, 2025 10:23 AM

    Our budget process is very condensed in comparison.  We have a budget workshop for about 1 - 1.5 hours where I present the draft budget to council through a lengthy presentation. They have a week to review the draft, and then we meet for 1-2 hours with all department heads present. If they have any questions, recommendations, or changes, they let us know at that meeting. Each of our budget meetings start at 5:30 on a Tuesday and dinner is provided. 

    This will be my 8th year to do it and my presentation format has pretty much stayed the same. I think the consistency drives home the point that the budget actually has to stay pretty much the same in regard to what is in it.  There is generally not a lot of wiggle room for wish lists and they understand that. Thanks to the great State of Texas limiting our tax revenue increases, most of our increases in revenue seem to go toward retaining employees and paying for inflation related operating cost increases. 



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    Lesa Smith
    Finance Director
    City of Sulphur Springs
    Sulphur Springs TX
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Budget Workshop to Council

    Posted Jul 22, 2025 10:12 AM

    We've been very successful in our approach to budget workshops over the past several years. We hold three evening workshops, each lasting two to three hours. One workshop covers the CIP, another covers what is new/changing in the operating budget, and the third is the high-level overview of the numbers. The budget is presented by the City Manager, Deputy City Manager, and Finance Director. We do not do a department-by-department review, and department directors do not present unless a councilmember asks a specific question of them. This has greatly reduced the competition for dollars among the departments. 



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    Raymond Munch
    Finance Director
    City of Naperville
    Naperville IL
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Budget Workshop to Council

    Posted Jul 22, 2025 10:39 AM

    We hold a strategic planning session in April towards the beginning of our budget process. This is a day and a half for Village Council and Village Manager and then another day and half with Village Manager and Department Directors. It is facilitated by a third party and the purpose is to get Councils vision and direction for the Village to assist us with preparing the budget based on those strategic initiatives. We go through all our capital projects during this session as well. After the proposed budget is prepared, I give a copy to the Council 1 week prior to the Budget Workshop. Before the workshop our Village Manager meets individually with each councilmember to answer any questions. Our Budget Workshop is a public meeting that is held at 6:30pm on a Thursday and it usually lasts about 2 hours. I present the proposed budget at a high level overview, department directors present on major changes in their departmental budgets and our Village Engineer presents the capital budget. At this meeting, if the Council has any changes, it is discussed and those changes are incorporated into the final proposed budget which is presented in September for approval. 



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    Sharon Almeida
    Finance Director
    Village of Royal Palm Beach
    Royal Palm Beach FL
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Budget Workshop to Council

    Posted Sep 05, 2025 12:08 PM

    We are similar to Gwen's process. We also have internal departmental meetings where we review our wants/needs and rank them. Not that it helps when Council makes their decisions, but at least we tell them what our greatest needs are. We have had a couple of full-day budget workshops and a couple of half-day workshops, all of which included the Council and our senior staff. My City Manager has detailed the budget highlights in a public council meeting more than once and will probably do again this Tuesday. 

    @Lesa Smith I don't know what we are going to do if our state legislature continues to reduce our ability to increase property taxes appropriately. I see citizens all over Facebook being in favor of doing away with property taxes completely. We are a bedroom community and do not have a large sales tax base to rely on. I wonder how all these services our citizens enjoy will be paid for if property taxes are dissolved. lol Oh, you want your streets rehabed? Sorry. 



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    Sherry Roberts
    Finance Director
    City of Glenn Heights
    Glenn Heights TX
    sherry.roberts@glennheightstx.gov
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    Original Message