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BUDGET BY PRIORITIES PROCESS OVERVIEW BUDGET CALENDAR ---PAGE BREAK--- BU Why B by P A proces Tr Citizen Prior Approved b Objectiv Starts wi Diffe Traditiona UDGETIN Budgeting Priorities? ss that is: ransparent Open rity Based y Council ves of BP th Citizen Priorities erent from al Budgets NG BY P 2015 C Redm signif Honey City i with a popul Chall wide traditi innov Mayo transp devel City C five o To mo becau is in c a cert the se point servic intera PRIORIT 5-2016 ADO CITY OF mond is a uni ficant worldw ywell and M is the third la a business po lation of app enged to pro range of cus ional budget vative approa or John Marc parent and op oped with ci Council.” M objectives for Align the Measure p Get the be Foster con Build regi ove this visi use it focuses contrast to th ain percenta ervices result of the BP pr ces toward p action. 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As a re er in King C 9,649 and a r quality servic to change its mplemented a lfills the prom ection to off d on prioritie ed by the Red ues to have t rities (BP) p orities; ies; llar; City; and ected the BP tizen prioriti budgeting w without asse ns expect. T intended res ugh citizen IEW ally Nintendo, esult, the County residential ces to a s an mise fice: “a s dmond the same rocess: P process, ies. This which adds essing if The starting ult of city 32 ---PAGE BREAK--- Review of the BP Process Review Conducted by GFOA Long-Term BP Timeline Adopted Council Updated Long Range Financial Strategy Price of Government Below 5.5% Revenue Philosophy Redmond’s BP Process Community Focus Groups Early in 2010, the City undertook a thorough review of the 2008 BP process. This review was conducted by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Research and Consulting Center. While the review affirmed that the 2008 BP process was a significant success, it did offer several suggestions for improvements in the future. One of the key recommendations of the GFOA’s review was the development of a long-term strategy to continue to build out additional elements of BP over time. A timeline was developed as an element of the GFOA report. The City Council concurred with this recommendation and adopted a long-term BP strategy in early 2011. This budget is consistent with that strategy and continues to make improvements on the City’s innovative approach. In addition to the BP timeline, the Council has also reviewed and updated the Long Range Financial Strategy document first developed in 2005. This policy strategy creates the link between the biennial budget and the long-range financial sustainability of the City while providing high quality services. As discussed in the Mayor’s budget message, the City can accomplish these services as adopted in the 2015-2016 Budget while preserving an overall price of Redmond City government for 5.08% of community income (see Budget Overview for a more complete description of the Price of Government). Coupled with the City’s Long Range Financial Strategy is Redmond’s revenue philosophy outlined below. Assess and maintain fair, equitable and stable sources of revenue; Prioritize less volatile revenue sources over more sensitive to changes in the economic climate, such as sales tax and sales tax on construction; The “total” tax bill should be considered when increasing rates; Limits to taxation; and Voters should be asked to approve tax increases when the proposed increase is above a historical rate. To start the BP process in 2008 an independent firm held four focus groups with Redmond residents to determine citizen priorities. The citizens were chosen at random based on gender, age and location. Following the focus group discussions the City held a community workshop where 33 ---PAGE BREAK--- Six Priorities Identified Community Engagement citizens and business owners were invited to give further input and comment on the focus groups’ identified priorities. Based on all the input, the Council approved the following six priorities on March 4, 20081: BUSINESS COMMUNITY I want a diverse and vibrant range of businesses and services in Redmond. CLEAN & GREEN ENVIRONMENT I want to live, learn, work and play in a clean and green environment. COMMUNITY BUILDING I want a sense of community and connections with others. INFRASTRUCTURE & GROWTH I want a well-maintained city whose transportation and other infrastructure keeps pace with growth. SAFETY I want to be safe where I live, work and play. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT I want a city government that is responsible and responsive to its residents and businesses. Community engagement is a large part of the BP process. The City begins with an annual, statistically valid, survey of residents and businesses to gauge the effectiveness of City services. The survey results are available at www.redmond.gov. In preparation for the 2015-2016 Budget, Redmond also launched a new interactive tool, “Your City, Your Choice,” designed to take the pulse of the community on its priorities. “Your City, Your Choice”, a web-based activity, provides education regarding the existing priorities and invites community members to give an opinion on the priority framework. About 1,400 persons shared their views with the City on budget priorities using this tool. 1 The focus groups also identified education as a priority; however, since education in Redmond is the responsibility of the Lake Washington School District, the Council chose not to allocate limited resources to a priority over which it had no jurisdiction, although educational components are included in several of the six priorities approved by Council. 34 ---PAGE BREAK--- Advisory Committees BP Project Team Results Teams Civic Results Team 2014 Changes Requests for Offers (RFOs) RFO Process Once the six priorities were determined, the Mayor created several teams to guide the process: Project Team – Headed by the Mayor, included executive staff and the Deputy Finance Director to assist the Results Teams and guide the overall process Results Teams – Originally, six Results Team groups were created and each group was assigned a priority; the teams were made up of four employees from cross-department disciplines and one citizen. The role of the Results Teams was to fashion Requests for Offers (RFOs) based on the priority approved by Council. In 2010, a seventh Result Team was created. This team focused exclusively on the Capital Investment Strategy. See more about this Capital Results Team later in this section. For this biennial review, an additional team was created, called the Civic Results Team. Instead of having one citizen on each Results Team, the Civic Results Team was created exclusively made up of citizens of Redmond. Over the course of two months, the Civic Results Team reviewed the BP process, evaluated and provided feedback on City budget programs and determined the value of those programs to the Community. At the same time, the Team analyzed the programmatic outcomes and assessed the appropriateness of the City’s investment for the outcome achieved. The Civic Results Team provided important feedback to both the departments on their offers as well as the Mayor and Department Directors as they worked to balance the budget. REQUESTS FOR OFFERS Each Results Team designed “Requests for Offers” (RFOs) that related to its specific priority by identifying factors and sub- factors that contributed to that priority and developed purchasing strategies that answered the following questions: Where should the City focus its efforts and resources? Where can the City have the most impact? Where should Redmond influence others? Are there generic strategies that apply to all offers? The Results Teams invited all departments to bid on the RFOs and respond to specific purchasing strategies with the understanding that department offers would be reviewed first and then ranked by the Results Teams upon completion using the factors in the RFOs as criteria. 35 ---PAGE BREAK--- All City Funds Included Budget Requests are Submitted as Offers Budget Offer Process Offers Submitted by Priority Contents of the Offer City Staff Used an “Online” Tool Designed to Capture the Needed Information All funds were included in budget offers: General Fund, Capital Investment Program (CIP), Utilities and Special Revenue Funds. Therefore, all city services received the same level of scrutiny, regardless of the funding source. OFFERS An offer is a proposal by a department in response to a RFO that indicates how the proposer will meet the priority, how much it will cost and how the success of the offer will be measured. An offer is a program or set of programs that helps achieve a priority. Offers can be for an existing service or program, new programs or activities or improvements/changes to existing programs. Innovation was encouraged in all offers, as well as collaboration was emphasized between departments. In the BP process, each department must make an offer to provide a service that relates to results (a priority that is citizen driven). Each offer included the following information: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Who are we doing it for? Logic models and corresponding measurements to track performance for each program; and What is the baseline offer and how can the offer be scaled, either up or down. OFFER SUBMITTALS Department directors and their budget teams submitted offers based on the priorities that related to their departments. No outside competing offers were accepted in this BP process, but departments were encouraged to collaborate where possible to combine services if it was in the best interest of the City. Each offer needed to contain the following information: Description of the Offer – Simple, accurate, succinct, and complete; Logic Models and Performance Measures – Describe short and long term benefits, consequences if not funded and measures to gauge the identified outcomes; Scalability – Provide logic and evidence to support various funding levels; Customer Service – Identify who the customer is and how the offer meets customer needs; and Revenue Sources – Identify revenue support 36 ---PAGE BREAK--- High Level Indicators Developed to Measure Progress toward Priorities Dashboard Indicators for Each Priority PERFORMANCE INDICATORS As a part of the accountability for the performance element of the City’s budget process, a performance dashboard was developed in 2011; Council has continued to review this Dashboard used for budget guidance. In 2014, the City merged the Dashboard with its Community Indicators as both present measures of success for the City. Logic models, an additional measuring component, were added to the 2015-2016 Budget as well. Each budget offer includes a logic model which describes how their program or service is linked to one of the City’s key performance benchmarks. Redmond’s current dashboard measures include: Business Community: The number and average longevity of businesses by category, relative to community goals: retail, restaurant and tourism, services, high-tech and manufacturing; Percent of citizens and employees of businesses within the City satisfied with the range of businesses available in Redmond; and Percent of businesses satisfied with the services Redmond provides. Clean & Green Environment: Percentage of neighborhoods with convenient access to parks and trails (ability to walk less than a quarter of a mile to a park or trail from home or office); Percent of the twelve significant streams that can support native habitat as measured by an index of 35 or higher (for conditions to be healthy for salmon, the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) or “bug index” score needs to be 35 or greater); Rate of single family residential waste stream (garbage plus recycling); and Percent of citizens satisfied with the quality of green spaces and trails (inclusive of parks). Community Building: Percent of Redmond residents reporting they feel informed about community events, programs, volunteer opportunities and issues; Percent of residents reporting they are satisfied with their engagement in community events, programs and volunteer opportunities in the community; and Percent of Redmond citizens responding positively to a survey question that rates the overall sense of connection to the community. The City Council reviewed and confirmed the Dashboard for use in the 2015-2016 Budget process. Data with regard to the Dashboard Measures are available on the City’s website: www.redmond.gov/bp. 37 ---PAGE BREAK--- Capital Investment Strategy 2010 Changes Infrastructure & Growth: Maintenance report card: includes pavement condition, incidence of water main breaks and sewer overflows; Mobility report card: ratio of Redmond’s transportation supply to transportation system demands (i.e. concurrency); Overall satisfaction of Redmond residents with the City’s transportation systems; Jobs to household balance (i.e. number of jobs in the local job market per household); Rents, home sale prices and income as a measure of affordability; and The pace of infrastructure development versus the pace of growth. Responsible Government: Percent of community responding positively regarding satisfaction with City services; Trend in Redmond’s price of government; and The City’s bond rating. Safety: Quantity of violent crimes (crimes against persons) and quantity of selected property crimes (auto theft, auto prowl and identity theft); Percent of times the Redmond Fire and Emergency Medical Services provide a safe response with the right people and necessary equipment within the identified target times; and Number of residents engaged in activities related to public safety. Capital Investment Strategy One of the observations from the first BP process in 2008 was that a different approach was necessary for the Capital Investment Program (CIP) in contrast to the operating budget. In 2008, the six Results Teams had CIP offers to review along with the operating budget offers. The operating budget is for a period of two years while the CIP covers a six-year term. Also, the source of funds for the CIP is more complex than that for the operating budget. In 2010, an additional Team, the Capital Investment Strategy Results Team, was established. This team was charged with developing additional criteria in the Request for Offers of the six priorities (there was not an additional priority, but rather just an additional Results Team). If an offer was intended as part of the CIP, it was passed through the priority Results Team to which the offer was submitted to the Capital Results Team. 38 ---PAGE BREAK--- Additional Criteria for Capital Investment Offers Capital Investment Strategy Ranking the Offers Mayor’s Efforts to Develop the Adopted Budget Department Directors Team Involved Final Decisions Developed The Capital Results Team reviewed the offer in the context of: RFO criteria of the priority under which it was originally submitted; Project criteria specific to the CIP; Comprehensive Plan; Vision for support of development in the urban centers; and Additional funding constraints applicable to capital projects. This process was repeated in 2014 for the 2015-2016 Budget. In addition, a great deal of work occurred between the preparation of the two budgets to update the “Capital Investment Strategy” that looked beyond the six years in pursuit of synergy in the projects and the City’s vision. RANKING THE OFFERS When the offers were first submitted, the Results Teams met with the departments to seek clarity on issues prior to critiquing and reviewing the offers. During the first round of offer review, the Results Teams did not have funding allocations, nor were decisions based on mandates. The first round was used to give departments feedback on the content of their offer. It also gave the Results Teams some time to learn and understand their role in the process. Departments were then given the opportunity to improve their offers and make adjustments based on advice from the Results Teams. During the second and final review, the Results Teams ranked the offers with estimated funding allocations. ADOPTED BUDGET In July 2014, the Mayor received the Results Teams rankings, with suggested funding levels for the various offers. The Mayor met with all the Results Teams for their insights into the process and to understand how they arrived at their conclusions. The Mayor worked for several weeks with the Directors Team to review the recommendations of the Results Teams and make adjustments to address revenue constraints and other needed changes. When the final revenue estimates for the 2015-2016 Budget became available in August, the Mayor finalized the decisions necessary to present a budget to Council that was structurally balanced, reflected the recommendations of the Results Teams, and responded to the priorities recommended by citizens. 39 ---PAGE BREAK--- Funding b in 2013-201 Com Funding b in 2015-201 Use of Bud Priorities is by th by Priority 14 Budget mpared to by Priority n Adopted 16 Budget dgeting by Affirmed he Results BP PR The M than j outlin craft R includ oppor ROCESS A Mayor’s visio ust a budget ning the prior Request for de many staf rtunity to be AFFIRMED on for the BP t. The inclus rities and the Offers has e ff, as well as engaged in Funding of Adopted Funding of Adopted D P process ha sion of the c e creation of expanded the s citizens wh their commu f Operations d 2015-2016 f Operations d 2013-2014 as resulted in community in f Results Tea e budget pro ho never had unity or its s by Priority 6 Budget s by Priority 4 Budget n more n ams to cess to d the y y 40 ---PAGE BREAK--- Innovations and Efficiencies Public Safety Innovations government in this manner. Creating interdepartmental teams allowed staff to better understand what other departments accomplish, while the Civic Results Team formed a citizen perspective on how the services are viewed by community members. City employees are included in the budget process to a much larger extent than in the past; those who were not directly involved met with the Mayor regularly to ask questions and gain information. Over the past two biennia, staff have been investigating ways of doing businesses differently. The City has a long standing history of both contracting out services and being a service provider to other jurisdictions. City staff have developed an inventory of innovation and efficiency efforts to date whether it is pursuing outsourcing as the most effective way to do business or exploring process improvement systems to enhance service delivery. These activities include: Public Safety Effective partnerships with service providers, such as Fire District #34, King County Advanced Life Support, North East King County Regional Public Safety Communication Agency (NORCOM) and neighboring jurisdictions; Pursuing regional fire training solutions; Cost effective jail management (the Police Department just signed an agreement with South Correctional Entity which has allowed the City to reduce jail costs by another $130,000); Regional information sharing of crime data; Partnering with Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency (EPSCA) for public safety radio services; Outsourcing police vehicle fitting; Connecting with the Redmond Community through the Neighborhood Resource Officer Program; and Continued improvement on performance measure of responding to Public Records Request within five days 90% of the time – 2011 equaled 61% and mid-2014 was 84% with less staffing. 41 ---PAGE BREAK--- Regional Activities Process Improvement Initiative Regional Efforts Providing services, such as Police Dispatch to the Cities of Carnation and Duvall, as well as fire equipment maintenance to the Cities of Bothell and Mercer Island; Cooperative training activities via Human Resources; Delivering and funding human services; Providing affordable housing through A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH); Development of permanent winter shelter site; Economic Development partnership with OneRedmond and King County Economic Development Council; Support coordinated regional land use planning efforts through the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), the Growth Management Planning Council (GMPC) and King County; Develop transportation and transit investments and services via partnership with PSRC, Sound Transit and METRO; Collaboration with Eastside Rail Corridor for the Redmond Central Connector; Deployment of Operative IQ Medical Inventory and Vehicle Asset Management software; Implementation of Eso Solutions tablets and associated software to facilitate patient reporting; Relationship with Cascade Water Alliance (CWA) for water delivery; Providing planning services to the City of Duvall; and Regional partnership with King County and other local agencies for stormwater and wastewater services. Process Improvement Use of the “Price of Government” as policy basis for revenue discussions/decisions; Implementing new technology, such as Dynamics AX 2012 for accounting and project management and Energov for permitting; Integrated online planning information, access and tools; LEAN process and outreach improvements for commercial development permits; Implementing SIRE technology for online Council agenda creation, coordination and dissemination; Establishment of new model for Information Services customer service desk; Centralized City communication and outreach efforts; 42 ---PAGE BREAK--- Innovation Fund to Support New Initiatives Co-location of business license services with permitting services; Information Technology Strategic Plan implementation, including governance model and service management process; Implementation of “You Count” park data collection program; Instituting a new wellness program and implementing dependent premium cost-sharing; Leveraging transportation grant administration; Centralizing facilities and fleet maintenance services; Instituting new performance measure process through logic models; Integrating Council dashboard measures with the Community Indicators Report; Development and use of asset management principles, tools and systems for efficient management of infrastructure assets; and Capital project delivery process improvements including phase gates, standardized governance processes and construction contract management improvements. Innovation Fund Efforts In conjunction with the innovation and efficiency activities listed above, in the 2013-2014 Budget money was set aside to form an Innovations Fund to be used as seed money to initiate creative ideas that would build service capacity or provide a return on investment. The Innovation Fund projects selected for 2013-2014 are listed below. Some of these projects are ongoing while others are complete, but the City continues to check the performance outcome of each of these ideas. Repurposing of equestrian space; Maintenance and Operations Center emergency response coordination improvements; Online volunteer recruitment and management tool; Adding capacity to the City’s liquid de-icing capabilities; Use of Microsoft Cloud resources for information technology testing and development; Implement Ideascale for community-sourced feedback; and Instituting public safety scheduling software. 43 ---PAGE BREAK--- Budget by Priorities Personnel is a Key Focus Area Capital Investment Plan Budget by Priorities is the implementation of the operating plan through deploying financial resources. It resets the focus every two years on accomplishing as much in the way of service provision to the community as resources will allow. It affirms the value of the services provided through a robust use of performance management where each programs’ intended outcomes are described through a logic model. The data about past performance is also part of the analysis. The BP process focuses on outcomes; however, those outcomes are achieved by careful deployment of resources. The primary resource used by the City to provide community outcomes is personnel. As a result, personnel costs amount to approximately two-thirds of all expenditures. The ability to maintain a well-trained, well-equipped workforce is crucial to the provision of reliable services. The Capital Investment Strategy results in a mix of projects and programs implemented by the City. These are described in the Capital Investment Program (CIP). The CIP is a list of projects and programs that are presented by the year of implementation, the functional area (e.g. water, parks and transportation), as well as the location and cost of the project/program. Since capital resources are included in the Price of Government, the ability of the City to afford the various capital investments is also affected by the “price” (see more detail on the Price of Government in the Budget Overview section of this document). The BP process has served Redmond well as a way to identify those city services that are the most valuable to citizens of Redmond. It also focuses the process on efficiency and real results. 44 ---PAGE BREAK--- BUDGET CALENDAR 2015-2016 BIENNIAL BUDGET CITY OF REDMOND TASK 2014 DATE Community Survey Discussion of Results February 4 Council Retreat February 22 Council Briefing on BP Process/Calendar/Citizen Engagement (PAF Committee) February 25 Community Web Questionnaire Discussion of Results March Launch Budget Interactive Tool (partnership with DigiPen) March-June 2013 Community Indicators/Performance Measures March-April Request for Offers Development by Results Teams By March 14 Council Briefing on Request for Offers (PAF Committee) March 25 Meetings of Civic Results Team April 24-June 26 Departments Submit First Round Offers May 5 Public Hearing #1 – Budget and CIP June 17 Departments Submit Final Offers July 3 Council Briefing on POG and Preliminary Revenue Projections/Utility Rate Estimates July-August Budget Balancing with Mayor/Department Directors July-August Development of Preliminary Budget August-September Preliminary Budget and Six-Year Financial Forecast distributed to Council; Results Teams Briefed October 7 Public Hearing #2 – Budget and CIP October 21 City Council Study Sessions on 2015-2016 Biennial Budget October 28, 30(Th) November 6(Th); 13(Th); 20(Th) Public Hearing #3 – Budget and CIP November 18 City Council Adoption of the 2015-2016 Biennial Budget December 2 City Council Adoption 2015 Property Tax Levy December 2 Council Debrief of 2015-2016 BP Process January 2015 45