Fiscal Year Budget Workshops Introduced
With a sparsely-attended Flynn Center audience observing, Supervisors approved yet another layer of scrutiny at its upcoming budget and conduct a Special Session General Fund Budget Workshop. The Workshop will be conducted each and every August, starting within the next few weeks.
District 5 Constituent Heather Polen presented a petition with 38 names supporting the August workshop review. Polen stated the workshop would provide transparency and accountability
The vote was 3-2.
Starkey: YES
Borges: YES
Short : YES
Howard: NO
Wilson: NO
The trio who supported the August Workshop said transparency was the motivating factor in adding the August Workshop prior to formal adoption of the Budget in October. The 24/25 Budget is retroactive to July 1.
The Board authorized the Budget Team consisting of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), the Assistant CAO and the Auditor/ Controller to draft Budget workshop guidelines to provide to General Fund Department Heads and include the updating of the Administrative Manual.
In opposition to the workshop, Supervisor Chris Howard saw the process as duplicative, “Why do we need this process eating up a lot of staff time. We still have a mechanism in where the Board can bring Department heads back to appear before us to explain unanswered questions,” retorted Howard.
Starkey was passionate in her transparency goal…“ just because we put a budget in front of the public, the average person doesn’t have the wherewithal to understand the budget. We’re not doing our jobs if we are not informing the public. We must inform the community.”
The lightly-attended meeting underscored the palpable constituent indifference to overall local budget issues.
Amid a cloud of confusion and unknowns, including protocol questions, the Board narrowly passed the General Fund Budget Workshops item.
The final item of the Meeting was a discussion and approval of range adjustments for Roads Division classifications, requested by Community Development.
Per Board Direction at the June 24th Meeting, the Board narrowly passed the recommended revisions 3-2.