For the past month, the city has been promoting Priority Based Budgeting (PBB), an economic approach centered around local governments reassessing their priorities to make long-term funding decisions and establish a results-driven budgeting process. The city partnered with ResourceX to assist with the process and created a Benicia Town Hall survey to solicit feedback from Benicia residents and employees on the role of local government. The city first introduced the approach at the Feb. 27 City Council meeting and has been actively promoting it ever since, including at two budgeting workshops and seven boards and commissions so far. On Thursday, Economic Development Manager Mario Giuliani made the Historic Preservation Review Commission (HPRC) the city’s latest stop with a presentation.
Giuliani delivered an overview of the project and encouraged attendees and commissioners to take the survey.
“Priority Based Budgeting takes all the city programs that we offer our community and it defines them,” he said. “That is how the budget is conveyed to the public.”
Giuliani said PBB would be available on a cloud-based system where people could go onto their computers or smartphones and see where the dollars are going.
“This does not solve our budget problem,” Giuliani said, “but it’s gonna be a very effective tool for citizens and our elected officials to better understand our budget.”
Giuliani noted that the city had not invested any General Fund money into the road for more than a decade until the passage of Measure C in 2014.
“That’s not to say we haven’t put any money into our roads,” he said. “We’ve invested federal grant money and state sales tax money.”
With PBB, Giuliani said, residents could zero in and see what money is being used to fund certain programs, what revenue is being generated by those programs and how the city is investing in them.
“It really is a tool for our elected officials to say, ‘Are we putting our dollars where our priorities are?’” he said.
At the Feb. 27 council meeting, Chris Fabian of ResourceX said the first order of business was for municipalities to describe what they as a community are in the business of doing. Benicia’s Strategic Plan, which was adopted 15 years ago and is updated every two years, outlines five priority goals: protecting community health and safety, protecting and enhancing the environment, strengthening economic and fiscal conditions, preserving and enhancing infrastructure, and maintaining a high quality of life. The councilmembers agreed that these are all good priorities but felt they could be defined better as each community has its own idea of what satisfies these priorities. For instance, Pacifica— where City Manager Lorie Tinfow previously worked— has a whale removal program, which falls into the category of maintaining a strong environment. However, such a program is not available or needed in Benicia.
“That is why we’re asking for your help in a survey,” Giuliani said.
One thing the city is hoping for is definitions from commissioners. The survey will close on March 30, a workshop will be conducted on April 24 to score the definitions provided and the city hopes to have the process done by November to provide a picture of the budget before the next one is adopted in June 2019.
Commissioner Toni Haughey said that whenever the budget is released, nonprofits like the Benicia Historical Museum and Benicia Main Street, get nervous.
“How would someone address that?” she asked. “Would they be able to address those nonprofits based on these five categories? Some people aren’t even going to be thinking about history or nonprofits. How is the feedback going to come in by taking this survey?”
Giuliani said there would be “glaring omissions” throughout the process, but that would be OK.
“We’re not applying any budget dollars when this finished up in November,” he said. “Once we get this model built, we may notice some things that nonprofits are doing that maybe didn’t get wrapped into our program definition. Nevertheless, they’re still supported by the city. I think we’re gonna capture some of them, but we’re gonna have misses and that’s OK because we’re not asking the City Council to make a decision two weeks later on our budget.”
“We’re gonna have a lot of time to look at that data (and) make those decisions come June (2019) when the budget is adopted,” he said.
In other business, the commission voted 3-1— Jon Van Landschoot voted against, Gilbert von Studnitz was absent, and Jack Maccoun and Steve Mckee recused themselves— to approve the design review for the replacement of windows at 155 and 157 East H St. The commission also voted to re-elect Tim Reynolds as chair and elect Haughey as vice chair.
The commission will next meet Thursday, April 26.
Bob "The Owl" Livesay says
I sure hope the residents understand just what PBB is. The results will be analyzed and then determinations will be made on how to allocate the city budget funds. I have been writing about the financial crisis this city is approaching. It appears the mayor thinks this is business as usual. Well it is not. This and other city’s are carrying a very heavy burden that is not going away. It is CalPers unfunded liabilities. The city faces a minimum of $800,00 a year increase for many years to come. We do not have the revenue to meet all the city services. So guess what? Here comes PBB. This can be an effective tool when you have a balanced budget and revenue meets demands. That is not the case in this very fine city. So guess what happens. You got it. Big CUTS to services, Possibility of out sourcing/’contracting out some of our services. Does anyone want the Library only open six days a week and now charge for some of their other services. I think not. That is just an example of how things will be looked at. The City Manager/City Staff will then lay out some alternatives to the City Council for consideration. So as we now see the burden is now put on the City Council. They will be faced with some very difficult decisions. That is their job. But remember the Mayor and Vice Mayor Young will pass the responsibility to the PBB and but the blame on others. Then send it back to the City manager and staff for further revue. All along knowing what the real issue is but political scared to face up to ,it. It will be a very interesting time. Stay tuned as all this develops. It will effect the 2019/2020 and 2020/21 BUDGETS.
Thom Davis says
As I said when Chris F. was first coming to town to get the city to pay him/his firm for the tool. It is nothing less than a method of hornswoggling the public into feeling better about going broke. If you look at the track record of where PBB was used, very few residents agree that it was worthwhile and eventually, it was abandoned. PBB has been around for a decade…look it up yourself. I suggest Kalamazoo as your first look since it adopted it five years ago or so. Benicia will stay broke and get worse the longer we have communists running the town. As long as the industrial park is nearly vacant, we won’t have the monetary base for all the give away programs the city wants to fund. Recall the mayor and recall the entire city council (except maybe Schwartzman) if you want to make a change for the better. Then make DRASTIC cuts in services. At the same time, reduce city charges for new business to attract small business to the industrial park-STREAMLINE or eliminate permitting processes. At most the city has a vest pocket, if you want to survive into the next century, you have to position yourself with a very deep pocket. PBB isn’t gonna get you there.
Bob "The Owl" Livesay says
Mark H is a winner. Alan will not run for re-election unless he is forced to by getting upset with recent issues. That is his decision. The progressive Democrats of Benicia or as I call them the Socialist Progressive Democrats of Benicia will follow there Mission Statement: All grounded in liberal ideals. Sound familiar. Think Mayor Patterson and Vice Mayor Young. Fits them to a T. The SPDB will try and take two seats in the Benicia City Council election in 2018. That’s Non-Partisan elections in Benicia for you voters to think about. Not identified by party but that does not stop this Socialist group.