BIENNIAl BUDGET: BACK to BasICs

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Frederica Boone
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1 BIENNIAl BUDGET: BACK to BasICs The City of Tacoma s Biennial Budget is balanced and aligned with the City s commitment to maintaining the quality of life and the services residents depend on daily. The City s Budget is the single most important policy document adopted by Mayor and Council each biennium. The budget serves as a means to allocate resources to a variety of City programs and priorities and to protect the community s physical security, enhance the community s quality of life, and maintain and develop the City s facilities and infrastructure. In this most challenging of times, the budgetary choices the City makes will be especially important to ensure that the needs of our residents are met. The development of the Budget focused on a Back to Basics approach by addressing ways to streamline operations, enhance performance, reduce costs, while minimizing any adverse impact on service delivery. The Back to Basics strategy encompassed three fundamental areas that staff deemed important in the development of the budget: Core Services, Continuous Improvement, and Credibility. Core Service: Staff evaluated City services to ensure they aligned with City Council strategic goals and the community s expectations of core services such as street maintenance, police protection, fire protection, and neighborhood services. Continuous Improvement: The City is dedicated to providing services efficiently. As part of the budget review, staff looked for cost effective ways to improve service delivery. Credibility: Through municipal transparency, the City works to ensure the community is kept abreast of where the City stands financially throughout the entire budget process. The budget illustrates revenues and expenditures through department metrics and performance measures for citizens to better understand how the funding is allocated. The process of developing the City s budget entails a comprehensive effort that incorporates input from City departments, employees, citizens, community stakeholders, Mayor and Council, private entities, and other governmental agencies. Several strategies were implemented including a Goal Setting Work Session held on June 19, 2012, with Mayor and Council to discuss and review City services, revenues, expenditures and areas for redirections and/or reductions. The purpose of this work session was to establish a budgetary and fiscal baseline, to set service delivery priorities and the fiscal policy, and to discuss specific policy areas having potential impact to the Biennial Budget. During the session, City Council participated in a discussion to rate their service priorities through a Rating of City Services. As a result, public safety and street maintenance emerged as top priorities for the budget development process. Civic Engagement Budget Development Strategy Over the course of developing the budget, the City included a civic and employee engagement strategy to invite the public to provide input as part of the process. Community and employee input served as an integral role in helping staff identify and develop program changes and service recommendations for This strategy encouraged citizen participation through four initiatives: Community Budget Input Meetings, the Budget Input Box, the City Services Questionnaire and the Citizen s Rating of City Services. Information and access to these initiatives were provided in English, Korean, Spanish, Cambodian, and Vietnamese. In addition to the community input opportunities, the Employee Frontline Focus initiative was implemented to give City employees an opportunity to provide input during the budget process. A complete report of the Civic Engagement Budget Development Strategy findings can be found in the Appendix section of this document. BUDGET STRATEGY 17

2 BUDGET STRATEGY Community Budget Input Meetings To kick off the citizen engagement, the City held a series of community input meetings from June through August. A total of 14 (10 hosted by City Council and 4 hosted by community groups) meetings were held to give citizens an opportunity to hear about the state of the City budget and provide comments on City services and programs. The total attendance for all community input meetings was 819 with 232 individuals providing comments on such topics as streets and transportation, human services, public safety, art programs and libraries. The largest attended meeting was held at the Korean Women s Association with a record attendance of more than 300 citizens. After the Proposed Budget was presented to the City Council on October 2, 2012, City Staff hosted a series of community budget input meetings in October and November. A total of 9 meetings (5 hosted by City Council and 4 by community groups) were held in the second round of public meetings. At these meetings, community members were given the opportunity to comment on the Proposed Budget. 158 people attended the City Council hosted meetings. After the community input meeting were held for the Proposed Budget, the City Council unanimously approved and adopted the budget on December 4, Budget Input Box In addition to the Community Budget Input Meetings, the City implemented the Budget Input Box comment form as an avenue for citizens to provide suggestions on how the City could make effective changes to service delivery, increase efficiencies, and/or generate new revenues. The City distributed 25 Budget Input Boxes at various locations throughout the city including libraries, senior centers, Metro Parks facilities and at various community events. In addition, the form was available on the City s website to allow for individuals to submit their suggestions online. Through the Budget Input Box initiative, the City received 336 forms outlining suggestions along seven major themes: Maintain/Support for Programs and Services: Respondents stated they wished to see increased funding or funding maintained for specific service areas or stated they valued these services. (128 comments were received.) Service Efficiencies 21% Service Reductions 5% Revenue 6% General Reductions 21% Management/ Budget Strategies 4% Other 7% General Reductions: Respondents provided suggestions related to reductions across all departments such as salaries, benefits and general resources. (73 comments were received.) Service Efficiencies: Respondents commented that the City should look for efficiencies in these areas or review current service levels. (73 comments were received.) Revenue: Respondents provided revenue generating ideas. (21 comments were received.) Maintain/Support for Programs and Services 36% 18

3 Service Reductions: Respondents provided recommendations for service reductions. (19 comments were received.) Management/Budget Strategies: Respondents suggested overall strategies for budget reductions such as across organizational cuts and comparing to other cities in similar situations. (18 comments were received.) Other: This theme included suggestions regarding other jurisdictions and service requests. (24 comments were received.) City Services Questionnaire Citizens were also provided another avenue to provide their input through the City Services Questionnaire. This questionnaire asked individuals to rank City services in priority of importance from one to 10. As part of this initiative, the City collected 791 questionnaires. Public safety accounted for 51% of the #1 ranking with Fire services receiving the highest percentage followed by police and funding support for community agencies. The following chart presents an overview of the percentage of service areas citizens ranked as being most important: Street Maintenance 4% Police (Special Enforcement Areas) 6% Arts and Cultural Programs 6% Library 8% Neighborhood problem-solving 9% Funding to Metro Parks 3% Senior Center Facilities 2% Fire 32% BUDGET STRATEGY Funding support for community agencies 11% Police 19% 19

4 Citizens Rating of City Services At the request of many citizens, the City provided an opportunity to learn more about the budget process through the Citizens Rating of City Services exercise. Similar to the process Council followed during the Goal Setting Work Session, individuals were able to create a mock budget with $8.50 by rating city services and allocating resources across 56 City services and/or programs. This initiative resulted in 42 responses. This chart illustrates the citizens ratings in comparison to City Council: BUDGET STRATEGY INTERNAl BUDGET INPUT Process A. Current Budget Allocation B. Citizen Response Average* C. Council Response Average Police protection $3.74 $3.30 $3.39 Fire protection Streets, sidewalks and bike lanes Community and economic development Library services Human rights and human services Parks and grounds maintenance Code Enforcement Total $10.00 $8.65 $8.50 * The results from this exercise concluded that the citizens were not able to achieve the $8.50 goal. This could be due, in part, to the varied responses to the City services that citizens deemed were most important. City Employee Frontline Focus Through the Frontline Focus initiative, City employees had the opportunity to provide their input on the development of the budget. Employees were randomly selected across all departments to participate in a series of focus groups to identify performance improvements and service enhancements for consideration during the development of the proposed budget. A total of 13 employee focus groups were conducted with 263 employees representing 11 City departments. This initiative generated more than 500 suggestions on topics ranging from process improvements that were specific to the department; cost recovery ideas related to current services; revenue-generating ideas; changes to technology or equipment that would improve work processes; and suggestions related to services; and suggestions about staffing. Ideas and suggestions generated from Frontline Focus initiative will be reviewed for consideration in the current and future budgets. Budget Innovation Teams In addition to the Frontline Focus process, the City developed a team of mid-level manager and executives to participate in a series of Budget Innovation work sessions. This team of 59 employees were tasked with evaluating current services and procedures for efficiencies and recommend sources for new revenues. The recommendations from these work sessions will be reviewed for consideration in the budget. 20

5 CITY of TACoMA Profile Tacoma is a destination place with the amenities of a big city and the charm of a small town. A dynamic and exciting locale, Tacoma is poised to embrace the future. Economic Outlook Against a stunning natural backdrop, Tacoma s local economy has grown over the last several decades. With an international port, a uniquely pro-business environment and some of the most livable neighborhoods in the Puget Sound area, Tacoma is home to a range of companies that compete in today s global landscape. Location Tacoma is located on Puget Sound s majestic Commencement Bay, 18 miles south of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Tacoma serves as a gateway to the Pacific Rim and the rest of the world. A diverse, progressive, international city, Tacoma sits within the Pacific Standard Time zone which enables its businesses to work with Europe first thing in the morning and Asia in the late afternoon. History Tacoma was incorporated in 1884 and became known as the City of Destiny when it was designated as the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Today, Tacoma has grown into a city with a diverse population of approximately 200,000. Downtown Revitalization Tacoma s urban core is evolving and assuming its natural role as the downtown for a South Sound region of nearly 1 million people. An energized, high-tech industry invigorates the area and is leading to continued expansion and development. Over the last decade, Tacoma Power has invested more than $100 million in 700 miles (1,127 km) of fiber to create Tacoma s high-speed, wired communications network. The University of Washington Tacoma s Institute of Technology produces graduates who are ready to contribute to a growing technology sector. University of Washington Tacoma The University of Washington Tacoma (UWT) campus has been a major catalyst for Tacoma s downtown renaissance. Over $150 million has been invested in building the campus that will eventually fill a 46-acre footprint. Since moving to its new campus in 1997, UWT has filled 13 restored warehouses and buildings that are new from the ground up. The university also features a 309-stall parking garage. Having started in 1990 with graduate and third and fourth years of undergraduate education, the State Legislature recently authorized UWT to transition to a full four-year program. Established in 1990 with 176 students in a single building, the UWT now enrolls more than 2,200 junior, senior and graduate students, and they admitted their first freshman class in the September of The Foss Waterway The Thea Foss Waterway is another part of the City s downtown transformation. Years of use as an industrial area left the waterway polluted, and it required an intensive clean-up effort. The $90 million clean-up has been completed, and redevelopment along the downtown waterfront is underway. city of tacoma profile 21

Created by Pierce County citizens in 1918, the Port of Tacoma is an independent municipal corporation that is the leading container port in the Pacific Northwest.

6 city of tacoma profile Tacoma Public Utilities Port of Tacoma Washington is the most trade-dependent state in the nation. It is estimated that, in Washington, one out of every three jobs is tied to international trade. Created by Pierce County citizens in 1918, the Port of Tacoma is an independent municipal corporation that is the leading container port in the Pacific Northwest. Each year, the world-class port handles more than 17 million tons of total cargo and does $25 billion in international trade. Tacoma serves as a major gateway to Alaska and Asia, and the Port of Tacoma includes 2,400 acres for shipping terminal activity, warehousing, distributing and manufacturing. According to an economic impact study by Martin Associates, more than 43,000 jobs in Pierce County are related to the Port, generating $637 million in annual wages. Top exports are grains, machinery, vehicles/auto parts, meat and plastic; top imports are machinery, vehicles/auto parts, toys/sports equipment, footwear and furniture. The City s Tacoma Rail utility is rapidly becoming one of the largest short-line railroads in the country. As Tacoma evolves into a regional rail system, it will allow for goods to be efficiently exported from Tacoma at one of the lowest costs in the country. As the City recruits companies and investors into the local economy, Tacoma Rail offers a significant advantage over its competitors. Local ownership and control of Tacoma Rail and its sisters, Tacoma Power and Tacoma Water, ensure that utility decisions focus on local customer and community needs. Click! Network, a division of Tacoma Power, offers a competitive choice for cable television service. Because of Click! Tacoma has laid enough fiber optic cable downtown to make even the highest-intensity user happy. 22

7 Corporate Headquarters Many companies have chosen to make Tacoma their regional, national or international headquarters. These include two of the top 100 healthcare providers in the country to leaders in the financial services sector, along with manufacturers and high tech firms: Americold BCRA Design BNY Mellon Brown & Haley Columbia Bank Concrete Technology DaVita Franciscan Health System Jesse Engineering Johnson s Candy McFarland Cascade MultiCare Health Systems Revalisio Roman Meal Co. Simpson Investment Co. TrueBlue, Inc. Neighborhood Business Districts Tacoma s 15 neighborhood business districts are a vital part of the City s economic development strategy, which extends the benefits of development into core neighborhood business areas. District associations provide a valuable communication link between the City and Tacoma s small businesses. The neighborhood districts offer a diverse array of goods and services, live music, casual and fine dining venues, artisan coffee shops, unique boutiques and more. Tacoma s Natural Resources Conserving and preserving Tacoma s natural resources from its marine waterfront to its parks, neighborhoods and public spaces is a priority for the City of Tacoma. From waste reduction and water quality, to a growing focus on sustainability, the City is committed to providing a variety of services to meet Tacoma s environmental concerns. city of tacoma profile 23

City of Tacoma, WA Assistant Finance Director

City of Tacoma, WA Assistant Finance Director Welcome to the City of Destiny. Nestled on the shores of Commencement Bay on the West Coast of the U.S., Tacoma is an international gateway to the Pacific