[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Budget thoughts and questions

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Burton, Jan

Thank you very much to the staff, who have listened to the Council feedback in the past 2 sessions and made adjustments. You are being very responsive and forthcoming with information and answers to questions! I have appreciated seeing other Council members’ thoughts and questions in regards to the budget. Following are mine. Apologies for the stream of consciousness.

General Thoughts:
We have a well-run city, and I have no concerns about corruption or malfeasance. We have a conservative approach to finance, and we have been building our reserves substantially over the past years. In general, the team and the City manager have done a good job. But, we’ve been lucky the last few years with very strong revenues, and we can assume those increases won’t happen forever. I would make a couple general suggestions that might help us over time:


  *   I would like to see a small team (perhaps in finance) do regular departmental reviews to insure products and services are still serving the community AND that they are a priority to the community. Let’s face it, priorities change, and it’s hard to discontinue something that’s been going on for awhile. Every department should face a review every two years from an impartial group who can help us drive efficiency from our taxpayer dollars. Perhaps some costs could be lowered to support other priorities. In other words, what do we stop doing!
  *   Our approach of Priority Based Budgeting is admirable, but I’m not sure we’re yet doing it. For example, snow removal was one of the biggest satisfaction gaps (between expectation level and rating) in our last Community Survey, but the budget has declined 37% from 2015 actuals. So, the community has said they want it improved, but we have de-invested.
  *   When I look at ADMIN budgets in the various departments, I see some large increases: Public Utilities Admin + 56% since 2015, Parks & Recs + 27%; Admin, to me, means overhead and support for the department. We need to control this kind of cost. Note, Police and OSMP have decreased their admin budgets
bravo!
  *   City Manager’s Office budget has increased from $1.4M to $2.7M, a 93% increase since 2015. What I would expect is a higher level of follow through from community issues, such as Marijuana smells, water damage, airplane noise, etc. We should expect tickler systems and methodologies to keep people updated in a timely basis. If we’re not going to put in an ombudsman, which I favor, then someone from this group needs to get the assignment with budget and accountability, to solve problems for our residents and follow through.
  *   OSMP Budget, decreasing! Congratulations! Net/net
let’s continually look at ways of reducing costs and being more efficient and saving tax dollars for our constituents.

Transportation:

  *   Can we somehow come clean on the old traffic study methodology vs. the new methodology?  For example, run the traffic study this year in the old way, in a way that can compare to 199x and see the difference, for once and for all?

  *   What’s the price difference between Vision Zero and NTMP (Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program)?
  *   Could we accomplish more with Vision Zero than re-starting NTMP?
  *   What are we doing for congestion, another major issue in the last Community Survey?
  *   Snow removal budget declining by 37% from 2015 actuals? When the community ranked it as one of the biggest gaps against their expectation. If this is efficiency improvements, then let’s look at more street coverage.

Homelessness:

  *   Human Services: Did we transfer the entire early childhood program to the county? What is the model for that vs. other things with the county?

  *   What is the 2017 total homelessness budget to compare to 2016?
  *   Additional $150K for EFAA—that is a big leap.

  *   $250K working group. Who will be part of the working group? I support them having budget to use quickly, but of course, we must spend it wisely.

  *   2 additional headcount. Though the activities seem necessary, I hate to an additional $1/4 MILLION of admin support going into the budget EVERY year!! Could we start with one person and lean on the service agencies to provide the data? I tend to want to spend more money on services for the homeless or prevention, such as housing.

Planning & Sustainability

  *   Congrats on driving your admin costs down.
  *   I would support an additional headcount for housing, given that it’s our highest priority.
  *   Total budget increase of $860K. I realize Council keeps asking for more. I feel we need to first ask for “different”. I would only support a consultant for the code assessment if there is a commitment to drastically simplifying the codes, land use, etc. and that the result is streamlined application process.
  *   Lots of added headcount. Headcount mean process and bureaucracy. I would support extra headcount to do Six Sigma reducing ½ of the steps in every application process for developers, builders, and homeowners.
  *   Could we wait on the Civic Center East Bookends? I think land use changes, zoning changes, and housing are higher priority.
  *   I don’t think an Urban Planner can help with making our buildings more beautiful. We need less expense in the building process so builders will have more budget available for architects and designers. Let’s use our Urban Planners to plan our land use and zoning.

Energy Strategy:

  *   At Oct 4 meeting, we indicated continued support for $239K for 1.5 people: Energy Strategy and Energy Sustainable Coordinator. I support this and no more. I would support a community poll to see where people are on the muni issue. Cost would be $12K-$15K.

Public Utilities:

  *   Budget for ADMIN increasing 56%. What is driving this budget increase, and is this driving all the increases in water and sewer fees that I have mentioned before?

·         Fees Ordinance (Attachment F) says city fees are adjusted based on costs of providing city services and depend upon inflation, pricing guidelines, or service-specific cost analysis. What specific cost increases did we have for all the impact fee changes and the tap fees, etc.

Code Enforcement:

·         8.6 FTE for code enforcement for rental housing, short term, and zoning (over-occupancy), Marijuana, and Building safety enforcement (what is current headcount, and what is the policy change to implement??). I am very committed to increasing our code enforcement and doing more proactively so we don’t make our residents the “bad guys” for reporting their neighbors.

Thanks so much!

Jan Burton
Member of City Council