Here We Go Again…. Budget 2025

By: Kelly Kuenstler, MPA

Kelly has extensive experience in public service, having served as Director of the Administrative Office of the District Attorneys, County Manager, and City Manager. She is now Vice President of Training Services at Clear Career Professionals. Kelly earned her MPA from New Mexico State University in 2002 and has over 25 years of involvement in board appointments, guest lectures, and professional development committees. Recognized with statewide awards in New Mexico and Texas, she has been actively involved in the New Mexico Association of Counties, Texas Municipal League, and Texas City Management Association. Additionally, she has contributed to the University of Texas, San Antonio, MPA Program as an adjunct instructor and advisory board member.

It’s that time of year once more! By now, most of you have been working on your budgets for several months and local leaders either know or have a good idea of what your budget will propose. I have jotted down some thoughts and ideas on how to ensure we are creating responsible budgets that ensure residents’ needs are addressed.

1. Have your departments been meaningfully involved in the process? City Departments are in the trenches and should know their specific needs. You certainly can educate them on anticipated revenues, political priorities and the economic climate of the City but they should construct a budget for their departments that includes project costs, standard operating expenses and supporting documentation.

2. Are you ensuring that the current economic climate is appropriately addressed and understood by department directors and staff? What is the state of the country? Of your city? What are your anticipated revenues? How will the current economic climate affect total tax revenue? The economic condition consists of many forces that influence the economic landscape – make certain you take this into account. This should assist you in facilitating a more efficient budget process where department directors don’t waste time on requests that will ultimately be denied.

3. Have you considered alternative sources of revenue for your city’s needs? Sometimes fees, fines and taxes aren’t enough. An idea to generate revenue might be leveraging national, state or local grants. Making local economic development a priority (if that’s the will of the people) can also be a great way to increase tax revenue. Ensuring fees collected are in line with the market and are covering expenses they were intended to is a means of collecting increased revenue. Charging adequate fees is important to the health of your budget. Issuing municipal bonds (if appropriate given the City’s bond rating and economic condition) is a revenue generator for building and maintaining local infrastructure. Entering into Memorandums of Understanding with other government agencies can assist in revenue generation by sharing expenses, sharing resources or collaborating efforts so that costs are shared. Finally, auctions are another way to rid the agency of outdated, unwanted or unused items while bringing in some additional revenue.

4. Have residents and stakeholders been engaged? Yes, this is extra work but it’s absolutely worth the effort! Don’t forget that this budget is constructed to serve citizens. It is your responsibility to make certain it does. In addition to building a substantial amount of trust, resident and stakeholder involvement works to ignite engagement with the community and will usually result in better and more sustainable decisions. Finally, collecting information from the public in a variety of ways and from a variety of sources helps ensure a broad perspective.

5. Is your proposed budget in line with your strategic plan? This roadmap is how you prioritize funding choices. Departmental requests should usually be aligned with the strategic plan. If they are not, you should be asking why! If your proposed budget is not in line with your strategic plan because needs or circumstances have changed, it is probably time to update your plan.

6. Have you created a transparent budget presentation? A transparent budget always assists with the credibility of the agency and establishing trust with citizens and stakeholders.

The budget process is inevitable and necessary to simply keep your city running. But don’t let this “necessary” document be without lots of thought, input, engagement and accountability. Make certain it represents what the government agency, its citizens and stakeholders want to accomplish for the following year and for the future. Good luck in budget preparation this year!

The Strategic Power of Organizational Reviews

By: Danny Kistner, DLS, EFO, CFO, FIFireE

Inattentional blindness, also referred to in the psychological world as perceptual blindness, occurs when we unintentionally overlook the obvious. In today’s action-oriented, fast paced public administrative environments, administrators only have time for cursory or superficial involvement in understanding the status of a department. Additionally, a public administrator does not have time to be an expert in every field, especially public safety. Fire, rescue, and EMS agencies in particular are vastly complicated by nature, developing at a rate that can only be equated to a renaissance. Innovations in service delivery, regulatory compliance, challenges with understanding fire service culture, and the complexities of fire science, justify administrators to solicit feedback from neutral subject matter experts for either reassurance that their agency is doing the right things, or to provide recommendations for additional improvement.

Clear Career Professionals SME’s have decades of collective experience in public safety and municipal government. Clear can customize a public safety agency evaluation to meet the needs of the municipality, which can be as detailed or general as necessary. Most Fire, rescue, and EMS agencies have visions and strategic plans, commensurate with the ability of the city to fund services. The question becomes, how well is the agency realizing their visions and plans.

The first step in any evaluation is understanding the priorities of the request, which is accomplished through direct communication in face-to-face meetings. The added benefit is the creation of a relationship between the host and Clear, a necessary component for building trust and confidence in the final product. Then, depending on the nature of the evaluation, evaluators will begin a systematic process of additional, in-person communication, site visits, select interviews, document review, all while reconciling with industry best practice and organizational goals. The added benefit of Clear evaluator experience is to provide the host with an unbridled understanding of the realities of the industry compared to expectations, a necessary component for critical decision-making. Prior to completion of the final product, Clear will provide a presentation to the host to validate the objectives were realized. Then, the final evaluation is submitted to the host. Clear will provide a briefing to the governing body, or any other stakeholder, on request and is available for follow-up.

Current Career Opportunities:

Chief of Police – City of Levelland

Senior Budget Analyst – City of Taylor

City Manager – City of Meadowlakes

Upcoming Career Opportunities:

Wastewater Plant Superintendent – City of Sweeny, Texas

Recent Placements:

John Oznick – City Manager, City of Dalhart, TX
Maria Rodriguez – City Secretary, City of Nassau Bay, TX

Clear in Action:

Clear will be attending the TML Annual Conference in Houston, October 9th – 11th.

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Contact us for a quote: info@clearcareerpro.com

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